Kenneth Rainsbury Dark (born in Brixton, London), usually known as Ken Dark, is a British archaeologist and historian who specializes on 1st millennium AD Europe and the Middle East (especially Late Antiquity, the end of Roman Britain and the sub-Roman kingdoms which suceeded it, the Byzantine world, early Christianity, Roman and post-Roman urbanism, and connectivity), archaeological theory and method, and on the relationship between the study of the past and contemporary global political and cultural issues. [1] [2]
He received a BA in archaeology from the University of York [3] and after taking his PhD in archaeology and history at the University of Cambridge was attached to Cambridge, Oxford, Reading and King's College London, [4] [5] before returning to the University of Cambridge, [6] where he is currently based at St. Edmund's College. [7] [8] He is also a Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. [9] At the University of Reading he became Professor of Archaeology and History and was director of the Research Centre for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, and has continued to hold a professorial title since that time [10] [11] [12]
He holds honorary professorships from several European and American universities, [13] [14] has written 15 books and many academic articles [15] [16] , and has directed and co-directed excavations and survey projects, both in Britain, including at Tintagel in Cornwall [17] [18] and at St. Augustine's Abbey at Canterbury in Kent [19] [20] [21] [22] – and the Middle East, including in Istanbul (Turkey) – where between 1997 and 2018 he co-directed both a rescue archaeology project on the Roman and Byzantine capital city and an archaeological study of the Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia and its environs [23] [24] [25] – and on the Roman and Byzantine periods in and around Nazareth (Israel) and on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. [26] [27] [28] His research in the Middle East, Britain and elsewhere has been the subject of extensive international media attention since 2015. [29] [30] [31] [32]
He is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the Royal Historical Society,the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, the only person ever to be elected to all of these learned societies. [33] [34]
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