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Professor Lord Colin Renfrew (1937-2024)

The BSA mourns the passing of Colin Renfrew, thought by many to be the world’s greatest living archaeologist, at the age of 87. Professor Colin Renfew, Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, was a Vice-President of the BSA and former Chairman of Council.

Born Andrew Colin Renfrew in Stockton-on-Tees in the north of England, he was elevated to the peerage in 1991 becoming Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn. After initially beginning to study natural sciences at Cambridge, he switched to archaeology and anthropology where he developed concurrent interests in both the nature of archaeology as a discipline and the prehistory of the southern Aegean. In the later 1960s and especially in the 1970s he was one of the leading lights of reform in the discipline of archaeology, promulgating (with Lewis Binford and others) the ‘new’ or ‘processual’ archaeology, which he developed later in his career as cognitive archaeology. His 1972 book, The Emergence of Civilisation, is widely regarded as a masterpiece. Bringing together his theoretical approach with his interest in the third and second millennia BCE in the Aegean, Colin developed one of the very few satisfying full-length treatments of a coherent place and time through his processual lens.

Although returning to Greece again and again throughout his career, his research interests were never limited geographically, and he wrote widely on British and European prehistory. His early work on radiocarbon, beginning with his seminal article in the Annual of the BSA, ‘Wessex without Mycenae’, led to the 1973 book Before Civilisation. The Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe. The latter also showcased his precocious interest in archaeological science, another theme he developed throughout his career. As early as the late 1960s he was interested in characterisation studies, such as on obsidian, a study he remained proud of his entire life, and on metals and other materials. In later years he was profoundly interested in archaeogenetics and used the evidence of archaeology to challenge accepted ideas about the development and spread of languages in prehistory.

His academic career post-PhD began at the University of Sheffield, where he was one of the leaders in the Department of Archaeology that would go on to become one of the most successful and innovative of its kind over the following decades. In 1972 he went on to become Professor at the University of Southampton. He became Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge in 1981, holding that role until his retirement in 2004. He was also Master of Jesus College from 1986 to 1997, and the founding director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, from 1990 to 2004. The latter, with multiple laboratories for different branches of archaeological science, encapsulated his vision of archaeological science as a means to bridge the gap between science and theory, integrating hard data within a broader academic environment. The generations of post-doctoral scholars that have been based there have gone on to create archaeological science niches worldwide springing from Colin’s original vision. The Institute was also host to the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, the first dedicated group studying this important worldwide problem (one Colin had long been painfully aware of from his earliest days in the Cyclades), and numerous important research projects.

Colin’s field research was also prolific, conducted through the British School at Athens, often working closely with colleagues in the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades and the Ministry of Culture. Centred mainly on Greece, it began with the Neolithic site of Saliagos adjacent to Antiparos, excavated with John Evans in the 1960s. He continued his interest in the Neolithic with excavations at Sitagroi in Macedonia, working with Marija Gimbutas and Ernestine Elster. On Orkney, meanwhile, he excavated in the Neolithic chambered cairn at Quanterness. These projects preceded two Cycladic sites that were to come to be synonymous with his name, first Phylakopi on Melos, and then Keros. He also excavated at the site of Markiani on Amorgos.

Phylakopi had long been known since the BSA’s early excavations there in 1896-99, revealing a large settlement of the third and mainly second millennia BCE.  Some further excavations had taken place there in 1911, but in from 1974-77 Colin Renfrew undertook a major new project there. Particularly memorable were Colin’s leadership skills during the tense days of 20–24 July 1974, when Greece was on the brink of war with Turkey – until the dictatorship of the ‘Colonels’ suddenly collapsed and democracy was restored to Greece. That year’s expedition to Phylakopi on Melos had got as far as Athens, but all travel within the country was banned. Day after day, Colin presided over his frustrated team in the Finlay common room at the BSA, spreading infinite calm, equanimity and good humour, while historic events unfolded.

The names of those who took part in the Phylakopi 1974-77 excavation read like a who’s who of Greek prehistoric archaeology, as a new generation, with new ideas, came face to face with their material in the field. Colin was extremely generous with his academic partners and students: John Cherry was able to use Melos as a test case for developing an entirely new approach to survey, one that still shapes our work, while Jack Davis, Todd Whitelaw, Mike Parker Pearson, John Younger, Tim Darvill, and Steve Shennan are some of the illustrious names associated with the project. While better study of the third millennium was one of his key aims, the unexpected discovery of a Mycenaean sanctuary led eventually to another formative text, The Archaeology of Cult (1985).

In recent years Colin Renfrew’s research has been focused on the third millennium BCE sanctuary and craftworking centre of Keros, a site with which he first became fascinated in 1963 and which came to dominate his research output in his latter years. He first visited it at the suggestion of Christos Doumas of the Greek Archaeological Service, who had heard of looting there. Difficult to get to even then, the scene of devastation on site was not promising for untangling the apparent complexities of the site. Beginning with investigations in 1987 (directed with Christos Doumas and Lila Marangou, with Todd Whitelaw and Cyprian Broodbank playing central roles), and then with major international research projects in 2006-08, 2012-2013, and 2015-2018, Colin came to the (not universally accepted) conclusion that the site was the setting of the world’s earliest maritime sanctuary. Subsequent work on the islet of Dhaskalio underlined how exceptional the site is, and its centrality for our interpretation of great social developments in the third millennium BCE.

Colin leaves a prodigious research output, with many monographs and journal articles to his name, as well as the multi-author output of all of his many research projects. He was also keen on the promotion of archaeology beyond academia, being involved in a number of documentaries over his career. He has honorary degrees from universities across the UK and around the world, and was awarded the Balzan Prize in 2005. His influence on generations of archaeologists was cemented by the textbooks he wrote in collaboration with Paul Bahn. His parliamentary work in the House of Lords from 1991 onward included a strong focus on archaeological heritage legislation.

Colin Renfrew at the Archaeological Museum of Naxos 2019, photo courtesy of Michael Boyd, the Keros Project

Colin was involved with the BSA for his entire professional career, not only in running projects for the School. As Chairman of the BSA Council from 2004 to 2009, he oversaw a period of financial challenge and institutional reorganisation that essentially shaped the BSA as we know it today. During a difficult time of transition, the BSA was greatly strengthened by having such a distinguished and authoritative figure as its Chairman, and benefited enormously from Colin’s personal charm and diplomatic skills.

The entire community of the BSA mourns the passing of this pioneer of modern archaeological science, and expresses its profound thanks for his life’s work. The legacy he has left for the School is both an inspiration and a challenge to which younger scholars must rise as they take forward the work that he began. We express our sadness and sorrow to his family, colleagues and many dear friends in Greece, the UK and all over the world. We are all of us in Colin’s debt, and he will be sadly missed.

Written by Michael Boyd for the BSA, with contributions from Roderick Beaton, Catherine Morgan and Michael Llewellyn-Smith