Professor Kenneth Kitchen (centre) with friends and colleagues Dr Paul Lawrence (left) and Professor James Hoffmeier (right) in 2022.
Words by Dr Glenn Godenho, Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology.
Kenneth Kitchen, a giant of Egyptology and lifelong University of Liverpool student and staff member, passed away on 6th February, aged 92.
Professor Kitchen was born in Aberdeen, started studying Egyptology at the University of Liverpool in 1951, and never left, becoming a lecturer and in due course being awarded a Personal Chair and then the title of Brunner Professor of Egyptology.
A prolific scholar, Ken (as he liked to be known), made significant and lasting contributions to our understanding of Egyptian history and Chronology. Focussing on the text-rich 16th to 7th centuries BC, he became particularly well known for his multi-volume KRI (= Kitchen’s Ramesside Inscriptions) and TIP (= his landmark study on Egypt’s famously complicated Third Intermediate Period that followed the New Kingdom). He was also remarkable for another aspect of his research, with major publications on the ancient inscriptions of South Arabia.
Despite living frugally in a modest suburban house surrounded by his 20,000+ books, Ken was an extremely social man who corresponded continuously with his friends and colleagues around the world, cataloguing their replies with a numerical cipher, all stored in the garage of his Liverpool home. He had reached 60,000 such replies when age and illness put a stop to his writing, and he was forced to spend the last four years of his life in care.
Professor Bruce Gibson (Head of the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology) comments that “Ken’s enthusiasm was something that he communicated to colleagues right across the whole Department. Long into his very productive retirement, he continued to grace us with his presence, his immense learning, and above all his unfailing kindness and courtesy to everyone.”
Dr Paul Lawrence (Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology Alumnus and close collaborator with Ken) adds: “As well as being one of the world’s leading authorities on the Ramesside kings and Egyptian Chronology, Ken was one of very few people in the world who could read Ancient South Arabian and a whole host of other languages once spoken in the Ancient Middle East – Akkadian, Aramaic, Coptic, Elamite, Hebrew, Hittite, Hurrian, Luwian, Phoenician, Sumerian, and Ugaritic. Never one to take a day off, on holiday in Rio de Janeiro he ventured into the museum, found some Egyptian objects, and set about publishing them (learning Portuguese in the process).”
James Hoffmeier (Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern History and Archaeology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) writes: “Professor Kenneth Kitchen was one of the most prolific Egyptologists of the past 50 years and his work on ancient Egyptian chronology remains the gold standard in the field. However, his expertise extended to other fields of the Near East. Though I was never formally his student, we connected in 1975 when I was a graduate student at the University of Toronto. From that time and for the next 50 years he was a mentor who inspired me to academic excellence and frequently offered helpful critique of my various research projects. Professor Kitchen was a faithful friend who enriched my life academically and spiritually through his exemplary Christian faith.”
Dr Benedict Davies (whom Ken taught and supervised at BA and PhD levels, and who went on to found Abercromby Press) remembers Ken as “passionate about sharing his knowledge with his students, and his kindness extended to making his personal library accessible to those in need. Some of my most cherished memories are of regular trips up to his home in Woolton, where we would while away long afternoons discussing all things Ramesside. In 2016 I had the pleasure of publishing his autobiography In Sunshine and Shadow, which Ken would affectionately refer to as ‘KISS’. Its rip-roaring descriptions of his wide-ranging sorties up and down the Nile to copy and collate texts for his Ramesside Inscriptions stand as testament to the dedication he invested in this project over many decades.”
Patricia Winker (former Departmental Secretary and Museum Registrar, Garstang Museum) recalls that “Ken was such a lovely, kind, generous man. Always smiling, his bonhomie was legendary. He was also a little mischievous and a tad eccentric. In the run up to his impending retirement in 1996, Ken had been given various presents, including 5 ties by different people. He was giving one of the final lectures to the Student Archaeology Society and didn’t know which tie to wear. So, he wore all five. The students were so polite that no one dared point it out. But when I walked into the lecture room, I took one look at him and asked why was he wearing 5 ties? He fell about laughing and said he was wondering when someone was going to notice!”
Ken at the Archaeology Society May Ball held at the Gladstone Hotel, 16th May 1996.
We will not see the like of him again.