Kenneth Adrian Raine Kennedy, doyen of south Asian archaeology in the U.S. and a close associate of Deccan College, Pune, passed away recently at his home in Ithaca, New York. He was 84. His wife, Margaret Carrick Fairlie, to whom he was married to for 44 years, died late last year. The couple did not have any children.
Prof. Kennedy, Professor Emeritus, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and South Asian Studies at Cornell University, Ithaca was widely acknowledged as the foremost spokesman of south Asian archaeology in the world. Over the last 50 years, Prof. Kennedy was actively involved in regular field studies, and in scientific writings relating to South Asian archaeology. He was closely associated with many institutions dealing with archaeology in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
K. Paddayya, Professor Emeritus, Deccan College, who was closely associated with Prof. Kennedy said the latter had pioneered scientific studies of human skeletons recovered from archaeological excavations and is, in fact, regarded as the father of human palaeontology in south Asia.
As part of his field studies in south Asia, Prof Kennedy excavated the Stone Age site of Langhnaj in Gujarat and also took part in many excavations conducted by various institutions in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. His principal area of interest was scientific examination of human skeletons recovered from archaeological sites and reconstruction of various aspects of ancient human populations such as burial practices, morphological differences in skeletal anatomy, dietary habits, migrations, and diseases and mortality rates.
Among Prof Kennedy’s notable contributions, the following, according to Dr. Paddayya, deserve special mention: the Late Pleistocene hominid skull piece from Hathnora in Madhya Pradesh, skeletal series from Mesolithic sites (late Pleistocene or early Holocene) in central India, Rajasthan, Ganga valley and Sri Lanka, skeletons from Harappa culture sites in Pakistan and human remains from various Iron Age sites in south India.
A condolence meeting was held at Deccan College (Deemed University) to mourn the death of Prof. Kennedy. Dr. Paddayya and professors M.D. Kajale and V.S. Shinde recalled Prof. Kennedy’s 50-year close association with Deccan College.
The speakers fondly recalled Prof. Kennedy as an outstanding spokesman of South Asian archaeology in the western hemisphere and as an admirer and well-wisher of Deccan College, which he had visited on numerous occasions since the early 1960s. Prof. Kennedy maintained close contact with the Deccan College faculty till his last days.
