Kent R. Weeks

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Kent R. Weeks
Kent Weeks in KV5 2007
Born (1941-12-16) December 16, 1941 (age 83)
Everett, Washington

Kent R. Weeks (born December 16, 1941) is an American Egyptologist.

Biography

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He was born in Everett, Washington, on December 16, 1941.

He remembers deciding to be an Egyptologist at the age of eight.[1] Weeks attended R. A. Long High School in Longview, Washington, and graduated in 1959. He studied anthropology at University of Washington in Seattle, from where he obtained a master's degree. He visited Egypt for the first time in 1963 and was active in digs in Nubia associated with relocation work necessitated by the building of the Aswan Dam and the flooding of the Nile Valley to create Lake Nasser. In 1970 he earned a doctorate in Egyptology from Yale University[2][3]

Dr. Weeks' professional career began with his appointment as Professor of Anthropology at American University in Cairo for the academic year 1971–72. Later he was appointed assistant Curator of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, then assistant Professor at the University of Chicago and Director of its Institute in Luxor (Chicago House), then professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1988 he became a professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo. His wife, Susan Weeks, was also an archaeologist and a gifted artist before her death in December 2009 [4].

In 1978, Weeks devised and launched the Theban Mapping Project–an exceedingly ambitious plan to photograph and map every temple and tomb in the Theban Necropolis. As part of this project, Weeks introduced hot air ballooning to the Luxor area with the intent of making inexpensive aerial surveys, which grew into an important part of the local tourist industry[5]. However, a more important achievement of the Project was its 1995 discovery of the identity, and vast dimensions, of KV5, the tomb of the sons of Ramesses II in the Valley of the Kings.

In 1996, Weeks received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[6][7]

On 12th December 2009, Susan Howe Weeks, Kent Weeks wife of 43 years, died.[8]

In 2011, Dr. Weeks founded the Theban Mapping Project (TMP) Library as a “public” or open library. It includes books in English and Arabic on Egyptology, archeological methodology, conservation, and management plans of sites around the world. It was originally located in a small house down a small lane.[9]

Front of TMP library and laboratory

In 2021, as a result of multiple donations, the library was relocated [10] to a new multi-story building and more recently Dr. Weeks was able to established a laboratory for archaeological preservation and study.[11]

Publications

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  • Atlas of the Valley of the Kings: The Theban Mapping Project
  • The Illustrated Guide to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings
  • The Valley of the Kings: The Tombs and the Funerary of Thebes West, (as editor)
  • The Lost Tomb, 1998

References

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  1. ^ Weeks, Kent (September 1998). "Valley of the Kings". National Geographic. 194: 9.
  2. ^ "Kent Weeks | the American University in Cairo".
  3. ^ "Living in the Past - Egyptologist Kent R.Weeks, Old Lyme". 2 February 2016.
  4. ^ "Weeks, Kent R. | the Capitol Archaeological Institute | Columbian College of Arts & Sciences | the George Washington University".
  5. ^ "Future's Past: How the Theban Mapping Project's Effort to Document Ancient Egypt Has Also Documented the Contemporary History of Technological Innovation". 12 November 2014.
  6. ^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  7. ^ "2014 Summit Photo". British paleoanthropologist, Meave Leakey, receives the Golden Plate Award presented by Awards Council member Egyptologist Kent R. Weeks during the Banquet of the Golden Plate Award ceremonies at Chicago's Field Museum.
  8. ^ "August 2012 - Theban Mapping Project". Archived from the original on 19 April 2012.
  9. ^ "Luxor's new Library and Resource Centre". 2 August 2017.
  10. ^ "Theban Mapping Project Library · PJ6H+5G2, al Bairat, Luxor, Luxor Governorate 1345151, Egypt".
  11. ^ "Research Tips - the ARCE and TMP Libraries in Egypt".
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