Andrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, (25 July 1937 – 24 November 2024) was a British

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, paleolinguist and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

peer noted for his work on

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...

, the prehistory of languages,

archaeogenetics Archaeogenetics is the study of ancient DNA using various molecular genetic methods and DNA resources. This form of genetic analysis can be applied to human, animal, and plant specimens. Ancient DNA can be extracted from various fossilized spec ...

, neuroarchaeology, and the prevention of looting at archaeological sites. Renfrew was also the Disney Professor of Archaeology at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and was a Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

Early life and education

Renfrew was educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire (where one of the houses is named after him) and from 1956 to 1958 did National Service in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. He then went up to

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, where he first read Natural Sciences, and then

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

, graduating in 1962. He was elected president of Cambridge Union in 1961 and was a member of the University of Cambridge’s Archaeological Field Club (AFC). He had run against and lost an election to Barry Cunliffe to become president of the AFC. In 1965, he completed his PhD thesis ''

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

cultures of the

Cyclades The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate i ...

and their external relations.'' In the same year, he married Jane M. Ewbank.

Academic

In 1965, Renfrew was appointed to the post of lecturer in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. Between 1968 and 1970, he directed excavations at Sitagroi, Greece. In the 1968 Sheffield Brightside by-election he unsuccessfully contested this parliamentary constituency on behalf of the Conservative Party. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in that same year, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1970, and an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2000. In 1972, Renfrew became Professor of Archaeology at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

, succeeding Barry Cunliffe. During his time at

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, he directed excavations at Quanterness in Orkney and

Phylakopi Phylakopi (), located at the northern coast of the island of Milos, is one of the most important Bronze Age settlements in the Aegean and especially in the Cyclades. The importance of Phylakopi is in its continuity throughout the Bronze Age (i. ...

on the island of Milos, Greece. In 1973, Renfrew published ''Before Civilisation: The Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe'' in which he challenged the assumption that prehistoric cultural innovation originated in the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

and then spread to Europe. He also excavated with Marija Gimbutas at Sitagroi. In 1980, Renfrew was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. In 1981 he was elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the

, a post he held until his retirement. In 1990 Renfrew was appointed the founding Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. In 1987, he published ''Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of the Indo-European Origins'', a book on the

Proto-Indo-Europeans The Proto-Indo-Europeans are a hypothetical prehistoric ethnolinguistic group of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Knowledge of them comes chiefly from t ...

. His " Anatolian hypothesis" posited that this group lived 2,000 years before the Kurgans, in

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, later diffusing to Greece, then Italy, Sicily, Corsica, the Mediterranean coast of France, Spain, and Portugal. Another branch migrated along the fertile river valleys of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

and

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

into central and northern Europe. The Anatolian hypothesis argued that

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

, the reconstructed ancestor of the

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

, originated approximately 9,000 years ago in

and moved with the spread of farming throughout the Mediterranean and into central and northern Europe. This hypothesis contradicted Marija Gimbutas's Kurgan hypothesis, which states that Proto-Indo-European was spread by a migration of peoples from the

Pontic–Caspian steppe The Pontic–Caspian Steppe is a steppe extending across Eastern Europe to Central Asia, formed by the Caspian and Pontic steppes. It stretches from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the ''Pontus Euxinus'' of antiquity) to the northern a ...

approximately 6,000 years ago. From 1987 to 1991, he co-directed excavations at Markiani on Amorgos and at Dhaskalio Kavos, Keros, Greece. Renfrew's work in using the archaeological record as the basis for understanding the ancient mind was foundational to the field of evolutionary cognitive archaeology. Renfrew and his student, Lambros Malafouris, coined the phrase neuroarchaeology to describe an archaeology of mind. In 1996, Renfrew formulated a sapient paradox, that can be formulated as "why there was such a long gap between emergence of genetically and anatomically modern humans and the development of complex behaviors?" Renfrew served as Master of

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

from 1986 until 1997. In 2004, he retired from the Disney Professorship and was a Senior Fellow at the McDonald Institute. From 2006 to 2008 he directed new excavations on the Cycladic Island of Keros and was recently co-director of the Keros Island Survey. He died on 24 November 2024, at the age of 87.

Positions, awards and accolades

*Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

(1980) *Made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

on 24 June 1991 as

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, of Hurlet, in the District of Renfrew. *Foreign Associate to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

of the USA 1996. * Balzan Prize, given in Prehistoric Archaeology for 2004. *Chair, Managing Council for the

British School at Athens The British School at Athens (BSA; ) is an institute for advanced research, one of the eight British International Research Institutes supported by the British Academy, that promotes the study of Greece in all its aspects. Under UK law it is a reg ...

, since 2004. *Visiting Scholar, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology,

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, 2005–06. *Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

since 2006. *Honorary degrees from the Universities of Sheffield, Athens, Southampton, Liverpool, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Kent, London and Lima.

Books

*Renfrew, A.C., 1972, ''The Emergence of Civilisation: The Cyclades and the Aegean in The Third Millennium BC'', London. *Renfrew, A.C., 1973, ''Before Civilisation, the Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe'', London: Pimlico. * Renfrew, A.C. and Kenneth L. Cooke, eds. 1979 ''Transformations: Mathematical Approaches to Culture Change''. New York: Academic Press. *Renfrew, A.C. and Malcolm Wagstaff, eds., 1982, '' An Island Polity, the Archaeology of Exploitation in

Melos Milos or Melos (; , ; ) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. It is the southwestern-most island of the Cyclades group. The ''Venus de Milo'' (now in the Louvre), the '' Poseidon of Melos'' (now in the ...

'', Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. *Renfrew, Colin, 1984, '' Approaches to Social Archaeology'', Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. *Renfrew, A.C., ed. 1985, '' The Archaeology of Cult, the Sanctuary at

'', London:

/ Thames & Hudson. *Colin Renfrew, Marija Gimbutas and Ernestine S. Elster, eds. 1986. ''Excavations at Sitagroi, a prehistoric village in northeast Greece''. Vol. 1. Los Angeles : Institute of Archaeology, University of California. *Renfrew, A.C., 1987, ''Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins'', London: Pimlico. *Renfrew, A.C. and Ezra B. W. Zubrow, eds. 1994, ''The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Archaeology''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Renfrew, A.C. and Paul Bahn, 1991, ''Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice'', London: Thames & Hudson. . (Sixth edition 2012) * Renfrew, A.C., 2000, ''Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership: The Ethical Crisis in Archaeology'', London: Duckworth. *Renfrew, A.C., 2003, ''Figuring It Out: The Parallel Visions of Artists and Archaeologists'', London: Thames & Hudson. *Ernestine S. Elster and Colin Renfrew, eds., 2003. ''Prehistoric Sitagroi: Excavations in Northeast Greece, 1968–1970''. Vol. 2: ''The Final Report''. Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. Monumenta archaeologica 20. *Renfrew, A.C., and Paul Bahn, eds. ''Archaeology: The Key Concepts''. London: Routledge, 2005. *Renfrew, A.C., and Paul Bahn, ''Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods and Practice'', London: Thames & Hudson. . (Fourth edition 2018). *Renfrew, A.C., 2008, ''Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind'', Modern Library. *Matsumura S., Forster P. and Renfrew C., eds., 2008, ''Simulations, Genetics and Human Prehistory'', Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archeological Research.

Articles

*"Models of change in language and archaeology", ''Transactions of the Philological Society'' 87 (1989): 103–55. *"Archaeology, genetics and linguistic diversity", ''Man'' 27 (1992): 445–78. *"Time depth, convergence theory, and innovation in Proto-Indo-European: 'Old Europe' as a PIE linguistic area", '' Journal of Indo-European Studies'' 27 (1999): 257–93. *"'Indo-European' designates languages: not pots and not institutions", ''Antiquity'' 79 (2005): 692–5. *"Archaeogenetics", in ''Archaeology: The Key Concepts'', eds. Colin Renfrew & Paul Bahn. London: Routledge, 2005, pp. 16–20. *"Phylogenetic network analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes", ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'', 8 April 2020

References

External links

*
Renfrew's page at the McDonald InstituteBiographical interviews
from Web of Stories (video)
Interview
with Alan Macfarlane (video) * (video) *Tribute: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/30/remembering-colin-renfrew-a-lover-of-modern-art-who-revolutionised-archaeology
Lecture on looting and illicit antiquities
(MP3) {{DEFAULTSORT:Renfrew, Colin 1937 births 2024 deaths Military personnel from County Durham 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel Royal Air Force airmen People from St Albans People from Stockton-on-Tees People educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Presidents of the Cambridge Union English archaeologists Academics of the University of Sheffield Academics of the University of Southampton British cognitive scientists Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the British Academy Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Conservative Party (UK) life peers Historical linguists Disney Professors of Archaeology Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Archaeogeneticists Members of the American Philosophical Society Life peers created by Elizabeth II Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014