Ken Dark

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 succeeded 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 and a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies.^[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]

• Dark, Ken (2023). Archaeology of Jesus' Nazareth. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192865397.
• Dark, Ken; Kostenec, Jan (2023). Hagia Sophia in Context: An Archaeological Re-examination of the Cathedral of Byzantine Constantinople. Oxbow Books. ISBN 9781789259872.
• Dark, Ken; Özgümüş, Ferudun (2022). Constantinople: Archaeology of a Byzantine Megapolis. Oxbow Books. ISBN 9781789258066.
• Dark, Ken (2021). The Sisters of Nazareth Convent: a Roman-period, Byzantine and Crusader site in central Nazareth. Routledge. ISBN 9780367542191.
• Dark, Ken (2021). Roman-period and Byzantine Nazareth and its Hinterland. Routledge. ISBN 9780367408237.
• Dark, Ken (2018). The Waves of Time: Long-term Change and International Relations. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781474288309.
• Dark, Ken (2001). Byzantine Pottery. Tempus. ISBN 9780752419428.
• Dark, Ken (2000). Britain and the End of the Roman Empire. Tempus. ISBN 9780752414515.
• Dark, Ken (1995). Theoretical Archaeology. Duckworth. ISBN 9780715626344.(Chinese and Japanese translations were published in 2004 and 2006)
• Dark, Ken (1994). Civitas to Kingdom: British Political Continuity 300 - 800. Leicester University Press. ISBN 9780718514655.

• "The earliest English church? The Chapel of St Pancras at St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, reconsidered", Journal of the British Archaeological Association 175, 2022, 13-36
• "Royal burial in fifth–to seventh–century western Britain and Ireland", Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 150, 2021 (for 2020), 21-40
• "Returning to the Caves of Mystery: texts, archaeology and the origins of Christian topography and pilgrimage in the Holy Land", Royal Anthropological Institute Henry Myers Lecture, Strata 38, 2020,103-124.
• "Stones of the saints? Inscribed stones, monasticism and the evangelisation of western and northern Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries", The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 72, 2021, 239-58

• Ken Dark: Nazareth Archaeology Project 2007. Field Work, Travel, and Research Reports: Byzantium. [1]
• Ken Dark. Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other fields (Thomson Gale: 2008)
• "Professor Ken Dark -The Conversation [2]
• "Professor Ken Dark' [3]
• "Professor Ken Dark" [4]
• "Professor Ken Dark" [5]