Kenneth Kitchen
Kenneth Anderson Kitchen was a British biblical scholar, Ancient Near Eastern historian, and Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and honorary research fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, England. He specialised in the ancient Egyptian Ramesside Period, and the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt, as well as ancient Egyptian chronology, having written over 250 books and journal articles on these and other subjects since the mid-1950s. He has been described by The Times as "the very architect of Egyptian chronology".
Background
Kitchen was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1932. He died on 6 February 2025 as an unmarried bachelor.Third Intermediate Period
Kitchen's 1972 book titled The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt , which covered the 21st through to the 25th dynasties of Egypt and contained an extensive catalogue of known dates and inscriptions as well as geneaological information for this period "remains one of the standard works on the subject" notes Egyptologist and Archaeologist James K. Hoffmeier. His book noted a hitherto unknown period of coregency between Year 49 of Psusennes I with Year X of Amenemope and another coregency between Osorkon III with his son, Takelot III. Kitchen's book also established that Osorkon I of the 22st Dynasty likely had a reign of 35 years as Manetho states in his Epitome states since the mummy of a priest named Nakhtefmut--buried at the Ramesseum--"was adorned with leather tabs and pendant emblazoned in the name of Osorkon I, and wrapped in bandages marked Year 33 and Year 3 of unnanamed king"--where the Year 33 date could only belong to Osorkon I.Kitchen's book stated that Takelot II succeeded Osorkon II at Tanis, whereas most Egyptologists today accept it was Shoshenq III who succeeded Osorkon II in Lower Egypt at Tanis. Secondly, the book presented King Shoshenq II as the High Priest of Amun Shoshenq C, a son of Osorkon I who predeceased his father. However, this interpretation is weakened by the fact that no objects from Shoshenq II's intact burial at Tanis bears Osorkon I's name. Finally, contra Kitchen, most Egyptologists today such as Rolf Krauss, Aidan Dodson and Jürgen von Beckerath accept David Aston's argument that the Crown Prince Osorkon B, Takelot II's son, assumed power as Osorkon III, a king of the 'Theban Twenty-Third Dynasty' in Upper Egypt.
Ramesside period
Kitchen was regarded as one of the foremost scholars on the Ramesside period of the New Kingdom; he published a well-respected book on Ramesses II in 1982 titled Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt. Kitchen was a scholar who advocated a high view of the Old Testament and its inherent historicity. His 2003 book On the Reliability of the Old Testament documents several clear or indirect allusions to King David's status as the founder of Ancient Israel, based on passages in the Tel Dan and Mesha stelas as well as in Shoshenq I's Karnak list. It provoked two interesting scholarly reactions and a reply by Kitchen.Kitchen strongly criticized the new chronology views of David Rohl, who posits that the Biblical Shishak who invaded the Kingdom of Judah in 925 BC was actually Ramesses II rather than Shoshenq I and argues that the 21st and 22nd Dynasties of Egypt were contemporary with one another due to the absence of Dynasty 21 Apis Bull stele in the Serapeum. Kitchen observed that the word Shishak is closer philologically to Shoshenq I and that this Pharaoh records in his monuments at Thebes that he campaigned actively against Ancient Israel and Judah.