David L. Kennedy facts for kids

David Leslie Kennedy (born 25 April 1948) is a famous archaeologist and historian. He studies the Roman Near East, which is a region in the Middle East. He is especially known for using Aerial Archaeology, which means studying ancient sites from above. He also looks at Roman landscapes and their military history.

Professor Kennedy is now an Emeritus Professor and Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. This means he has retired but still helps with research.

About David Kennedy

David Kennedy studied Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Manchester. He earned his first degree in 1974. Later, he received his Ph.D. (a very high degree) from the University of Oxford in 1980.

He taught at the University of Sheffield from 1976 to 1989. Then he taught at Boston University for a year. In 1990, he moved to the University of Western Australia, where he became a Winthrop Professor. He retired in 2017 but continued to work part-time on research until 2020.

Throughout his career, he has been a special guest or fellow at many important places. These include the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and Princeton University. He was also a Visiting Fellow at Brasenose College, University of Oxford. In 1986–87, he received a Senior Fulbright Travel Scholarship.

He is a member of important groups like the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2002, the Australian government gave him a Centenary Medal. This award was for his great work in archaeology. He also leads the Roman Archaeology Group (RAG) in Perth, which helps people learn about Roman archaeology.

His Research Work

David Kennedy's main research is about the Roman Near East, especially in Jordan. He studies how the Romans used the land, their military, and their buildings in this ancient area.

Aerial Archaeology Projects

In 1978, Professor Kennedy started a big project called the Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East (APAAME). He led this project until 2018. Its goal is to find and record ancient sites in the Middle East using special methods. This includes looking at old photos, maps, and satellite images. The project helps us understand how people lived in the Near East a long time ago.

From 1997 to 2018, he flew over Jordan every year for the Aerial Archaeology in Jordan (AAJ) project. This was the first project of its kind in the Middle East. His team uses satellite images from programs like Google Earth and Bing to explore even wider areas. You can watch a short video by Google about his work here: David Kennedy: Ancient Ruins.

From 2018 to 2020, he directed similar projects in Saudi Arabia. These were called Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (AlUla) and (Khaybar). He also worked on other projects, like the Jarash Hinterland Survey and a rescue project at the ancient city of Zeugma.

Desert Kites and New Discoveries

David Kennedy's work with aerial photos and satellites has also led him to study very old structures. These include "Desert Kites", which are ancient stone structures used for hunting.

He also works to make his research easy to understand for everyone. He has published some of his work as iBooks. One example is the Kites in Arabia iBook. In 2016, an article on LiveScience talked about his team's discovery of a 93-Mile-Long Ancient Wall in Jordan. This shows how exciting his discoveries are!

Selected Books

Here are some of the books David Kennedy has written or helped write:

• Archaeological Explorations on the Roman Frontier in North East Jordan (1982)
• Sir Aurel Stein's Limes Report (1985) – about an old report on Roman borders.
• The Roman Army in the East (1996)
• Rome's Desert Frontier from the Air (1990) – with D.N. Riley.
• Ancient Jordan from the Air (2004) – with R.H.Bewley.
• The Roman Army in Jordan, 2nd edition (2004)
• Kites in 'Arabia' (2014) – an iBook about desert kites.