Bennet was born in Singapore and was brought up in Yorkshire, England.^[1] He studied the Classical Tripos at the University of Cambridge, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1980.^[2] He remained at Cambridge to undertake postgraduate research on "The administrative organization of Late Minoan II–IIIB Crete based on archaeological and textual (Linear B) evidence":^[1] his supervisor was John F. Cherry.^[3] He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1986.^[2]

Bennet began his academic career as a junior research fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from 1983 to 1986.^[2] In 1986, after completing his doctorate, he moved to the United States and joined the Department of Classics of the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin.^[1][2] He was a Visiting assistant professor of Classics for the first year, an assistant professor of classics from 1987 to 1991, and achieved tenure as an associate professor of Classics from 1991 to 1995.^[2] In 1995, he was appointed a professor of classics.^[2]

In 1998, Bennet returned to England and joined the University of Oxford as the Sinclair & Rachel Hood Lecturer in Aegean Prehistory.^[1] The lectureship was attached to Keble College, Oxford, and so he was elected a Fellow of the college upon taking up the appointment.^[4] In April 2004, he gave the Marett Memorial Lecture at Exeter College, Oxford; this lecture was titled "Archaeologies of Homer".^[5]

In January 2004, Bennet was appointed Professor of Aegean Archaeology at the University of Sheffield.^[2][6] He has served as Director of the Sheffield Centre for Aegean Archaeology since 2004,^[2][6][7] and was Head of Department of Archaeology between 2006 and 2010.^[2] He served as Director of the British School at Athens from October 2015 to September 2022, returning thereafter to Sheffield.^[8] In addition to directing the School's operation in Greece, he was also co-editor of the BSA Annual and Editor of its publication series.^[9]

Bennet is married to Deborah.^[10]

On 19 November 2015, Bennet was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).^[11]

• Zarinebaf, Fariba; Bennet, John; Davis, Jack L. (2005). A historical and economic geography of Ottoman Greece the southwestern Morea in the 18th century. Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens. ISBN 978-0876615348.
• Baines, John; Bennet, John; Houston, Stephen, eds. (2008). The disappearance of writing systems: perspectives on literacy and communication. London: Equinox. ISBN 978-1845530136.
• Wilkinson, Toby C.; Sherratt, Susan; Bennet, John, eds. (2011). Interweaving worlds: systemic interactions in Eurasia, 7th to 1st millennia BC. Oakville, CT: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1842179987.
• John Bennet (28 May 2015). A Short History of the Minoans. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78076-326-2.
• Galanakis, Yannis; Wilkinson, Toby; Bennet, John, eds. (2014). ΑΘΥΡΜΑΤΑ: Critical Essays on the Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean in Honour of E. Susan Sherratt. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN 978-1784910198.
• Sherratt, Susan; Bennet, John, eds. (2016). Archaeology and the Homeric Epic. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1785702952.