Tributes paid to giant of modern archaeology who has died aged 87
Professor Lord Colin Renfrew’s work ‘profoundly shaped the modern discipline’
An ‘archaeological colossus’ and Honorary Fellow of St John’s has been remembered after his death at the age of 87.
Professor Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn (Andrew Colin Renfrew) FBA FSA was an alumnus of St John’s, former Master of Jesus College, and founding Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge.
One of archaeology’s most popular figures and a well-known face on early archaeology television programmes such as BBC2’s Chronicle and Horizon, Lord Renfrew was the tenth Disney Professor of Archaeology and a Senior Fellow at the McDonald Institute. He died peacefully in his sleep on 24 November 2024.
“Colin Renfrew was an archaeological colossus whose writings profoundly shaped - and indeed continue to shape - the modern discipline,” said Professor Graeme Barker, Disney Professor of Archaeology Emeritus, Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute and Professorial Fellow of St John’s.
“He had a huge impact on me, as he did on the lives of innumerable colleagues throughout the world, but in my case very personally because it was on meeting him when I was an undergraduate at St John’s and he was a Junior Research Fellow, and being completely bowled over by his enthusiasm and transparent intellect, that I decided to switch from Classics to Archaeology mid-degree.”
Lord Renfrew was a pioneer in the field of archaeology, radically changing the nature of archaeological enquiry. His main interests lay in prehistoric civilizations and the field of theory and methodology and his 1991 book, Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, with Paul Bahn, is a key handbook for archaeology students, now in its ninth edition.
Disney Professor of Archaeology from 1981 until his retirement in 2004, Lord Renfrew was Master of Jesus College 1986-1997, and founding Director of the McDonald Institute in 1990. He was made a life peer in 1991 and has been an Honorary Fellow of St John's since 2004.
Professor Cyprian Broodbank, current Disney Professor of Archaeology and Director of the McDonald Institute, said he and his colleagues were mourning the death and celebrating the ‘extraordinary life’ of Lord Renfrew; describing him as ‘an exceptional mind, and as a spirit of profound, exciting and rigorous change’ from his early days as an archaeologist in the 1960s.
Professor Barker, who succeeded Lord Renfrew as Disney Professor, added: “He was always immensely supportive of my career, as he was to countless others, and succeeding him as Disney Professor and Director of the McDonald Institute - his extraordinary creation - in 2004 was profoundly humbling.”
Born in 1937 in in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, Lord Renfrew was educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire, and did National Service with the RAF before arriving at St John’s to read Natural Sciences. He later changed to Archaeology and Anthropology, graduating with a First.
In 1965 he completed his PhD thesis on Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of the Cyclades and their external relations and was elected a Research Fellow at St John’s.
He later directed excavations at Quanterness in Orkney and Phylakopi in Greece and in 1973 he published Before Civilisation: The Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe, in which he challenged assumptions that prehistoric cultural innovation originated in the Near East and then spread to Europe.
Lord Renfrew has also been influential in highlighting the antiquities trade and the problem of looting from archaeological sites.
From 2006 to 2008 he directed new excavations on the Cycladic (Bronze Age culture) island of Keros and was co-director of the Keros Island Survey.
Professor Broodbank added: “To the very end, he remained engaged with the forefront of archaeological developments, attending and clearly relishing the 36th annual McDonald lecture on the Wednesday before he left us.”
Lord Renfrew leaves his wife, Lady Jane Renfrew, and children Helena, Alban and Magnus.
Banner photo: Ring of Brodgar, Orkney, one of the prehistoric sites where Lord Renfrew worked in the 1970s. Credit: Francesca Taylor/Shutterstock.
Published: 26/11/2024