View source for Colin Renfrew

{{Short description|British archaeologist (1937–2024)}}
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{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = The Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn
| honorific_suffix    = [[British Academy|FBA]] [[Society of Antiquaries of London|FSA]] [[Society of Antiquaries of Scotland#Fellowship|HonFSAScot]]
| image               = TVC June 2018 (29165787578) (Renfrew cropped).jpg
| caption             = Renfrew in 2018
| office              = Member of the [[House of Lords]]
| status              = [[Lord Temporal]]
| term_label          = [[Life peer]]age
| term_start          = 24 June 1991
| term_end            = 15 September 2021
| office1             = [[Disney Professor of Archaeology]] <br /> [[University of Cambridge]]
| term_start1         = 1981
| term_end1           = 2004
| predecessor1        = [[Glyn Daniel]]
| successor1          = [[Graeme Barker]]
| office2             = [[Master (college)|Master]] of [[Jesus College, Cambridge]]
| term_start2         = 1986
| term_end2           = 1996
| predecessor2        = [[Alan Cottrell|Sir Alan Cottrell]]
| successor2          = [[David Crighton]]
| birth_name          = Andrew Colin Renfrew
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1937|7|25|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Stockton-on-Tees]], England
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|2024|11|24|1937|7|25|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Cambridge]], England
| party               = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]]
| education           = {{nobr|[[St Albans School, Hertfordshire]]}}
| alma_mater          = [[St John's College, Cambridge]]
| allegiance          = {{flag|United Kingdom}}
| branch              = {{air force|United Kingdom}}
| branch_label        = Branch
| service_years       = 1956–1958
| service_years_label = Service&nbsp;years
}}

'''Andrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn''' (25 July 1937 – 24 November 2024) was a British [[archaeologist]], paleolinguist and [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] peer noted for his work on [[radiocarbon dating]], the [[paleolinguistics|prehistory of languages]], [[archaeogenetics]], [[neuroarchaeology]], and the prevention of [[Illicit antiquities|looting at archaeological sites]].

Renfrew was also the [[Disney Professor of Archaeology]] at the [[University of Cambridge]] 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)|St Albans School]], Hertfordshire; where one of the houses is now named after him. From 1956 to 1958, he did [[National Service]] in the [[Royal Air Force]]. On 21 June 1956, he was granted a national service commission in the Technical Branch with the rank of [[pilot officer]].<ref name="LG 27 July 1956">{{London Gazette |issue= 40843 |date= 27 July 1956 |page= 4416 |supp= y |city= |title= |quote=}}</ref> Having completed his full-time service, he transferred to the reserve (national service list) on 25 March 1958.<ref name="LG 28 March 1958">{{London Gazette |issue= 41349 |date= 28 March 1958 |page= 2086 |supp= y |city= |title= |quote=}}</ref> He was promoted to [[flying officer]] on 25 June 1958, with seniority in that rank from 25 March 1958.<ref name="LG 20 February 1959">{{London Gazette |issue= 41641 |date= 20 February 1959 |page= 1319 |supp= y |city= |title= |quote=}}</ref>

He then went up to [[St John's College, Cambridge]], where he first read [[Natural Science Tripos|Natural Sciences]], and then [[Archaeology]] and [[Anthropology]], 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).<ref>{{Cite web |last=The Archaeological Field Club |title=Alumni |url=https://www.archaeology.uk.com/team |website=archaeology.uk.com}}</ref> 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]] and [[Bronze Age]] cultures of the [[Cyclades]] and their external relations.'' In the same year, he married [[Jane Renfrew|Jane M. Ewbank]].

==Academic==
[[File:Lord Renfrew is shown the Roman gold coins from near St Albans by Sam Moorhead (8241370038).jpg|thumb|right|Lord Renfrew looking at artefacts including Roman gold coins]]

In 1965, Renfrew was appointed to the post of lecturer in the [[Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield|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 (UK)|Conservative Party]]. He was elected a Fellow of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|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]], succeeding [[Barry Cunliffe]]. During his time at [[Southampton]], he directed excavations at [[Quanterness chambered cairn|Quanterness]] in Orkney and [[Phylakopi]] on the island of [[Milos|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]] 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 [[University of Cambridge]], 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]]. His "[[Anatolian hypothesis]]" posited that this group lived 2,000 years before the [[Kurgan hypothesis|Kurgan]]s, in [[Anatolia]], 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]] and [[Rhine]] into central and northern Europe.

The [[Anatolian hypothesis]] argued that [[Proto-Indo-European]], the reconstructed ancestor of the [[Indo-European languages]], originated approximately 9,000 years ago in [[Anatolia]] and moved with the [[Neolithic Revolution|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 [[Human migration|migration]] of peoples from the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]] 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 [[Cognitive archaeology#Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology (ECA)|evolutionary cognitive archaeology]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Renfrew |first1=Colin |date=1982 |title=Towards an Archaeology of Mind: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered before the University of Cambridge on 30th November 1982 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1080/00665983.1984.11077826}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Renfrew |first=Colin |editor-last1=Renfrew |editor-first1=Colin |editor-last2=Zubrow |editor-first2=Ezra B W |title=In The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Archaeology |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1994 |pages=3–12 |chapter=Towards a Cognitive Archaeology |isbn=9780521456203}}</ref> Renfrew and his student, [[Lambros Malafouris]], coined the phrase [[neuroarchaeology]] to describe an archaeology of mind.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Malafouris |first1=Lambros |last2=Renfrew |first2=Colin |date=2008 |title=Introduction |journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=381–385 |doi=10.1017/s0959774308000425 |s2cid=231810895 |issn=0959-7743}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Malafouris |editor-first1=Lambros |editor-last2=Renfrew |editor-first2=Colin |title=The Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting the Boundaries of the Mind |location=Cambridge |publisher=McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research |date=2010 |isbn=9781902937519}}</ref>

In 1996, Renfrew formulated a [[sapient paradox]], that can be formulated as "why was there such a long gap between emergence of genetically and anatomically modern humans and the development of complex behaviors?"<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Donald |first1=Merlin |title=The sapient paradox: can cognitive neuroscience solve it? |journal=Brain |date=21 January 2009 |volume=132 |issue=3 |pages=820–824 |doi=10.1093/brain/awn290 |url=https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/132/3/820/337382 |access-date=19 June 2022 |quote=The paradox is that there was a gap of well over 50 000 years between the speciation and tectonic phases.|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Renfrew |first1=Colin |title=Solving the "Sapient Paradox" |journal=BioScience |date=1 February 2008 |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=171–172 |doi=10.1641/B580212 |quote=called the "sapient paradox," that some of the complex behaviors now associated with humans took a long time to develop even after the emergence in Africa of humans who were fully modern in the anatomical and genetic senses.|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Renfrew served as [[List of Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge|Master]] of [[Jesus College, Cambridge]] 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.<ref>[https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1254364/colin-renfrew-renown-scholar-of-cycladic-civilisation-dies/ Colin Renfrew, renowned scholar of Cycladic civilisation dies]</ref>

==Positions, awards and accolades==
*Fellow of the [[British Academy]] (1980)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/colin-renfrew-kaimsthorn-FBA|title=Professor Lord Colin Renfrew of Kaimsthorn FBA|publisher=British AQcademy|access-date=21 December 2019}}</ref>
*Made a [[life peer]] on 24 June 1991 as [[Baron]] Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, of [[Hurlet]], in the District of [[Renfrew, Scotland|Renfrew]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=52584|date=27 June 1991|page=9849|title=State Intelligence}}</ref>
*Foreign Associate to the [[National Academy of Sciences]] of the USA 1996.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.colorado.edu/today/1999/03/10/british-archaeologist-speak-cu-march-20|title=British Archaeologist To Speak At CU March 20|work=[[University of Colorado]]|location=Boulder|date=11 March 1999|access-date=21 December 2019}}</ref>
*[[Balzan Prize]], given in Prehistoric Archaeology for 2004.
*Chair, Managing Council for the [[British School at Athens]], since 2004.
*Visiting Scholar, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, [[UCLA]], 2005–06.
*Member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] since 2006.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Colin+Renfrew&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-24|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
*Honorary degrees from the [[University of Sheffield|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. {{ISBN|0-9774094-6-5}} (2011 edition)
*Renfrew, A.C., 1973, ''Before Civilisation, the Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe'', London: Pimlico. {{ISBN|0-7126-6593-5}}
* Renfrew, A.C. and [[Kenneth L. Cooke]], eds. 1979 ''Transformations: Mathematical Approaches to Culture Change''. New York: Academic Press. {{ISBN|978-0-12-586050-5}}
*Renfrew, A.C. and Malcolm Wagstaff, eds., 1982, '' An Island Polity, the Archaeology of Exploitation in [[Melos]]'', Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]].
*Renfrew, Colin, 1984, '' Approaches to Social Archaeology'', Edinburgh: [[Edinburgh University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-85224-481-9}}
*Renfrew, A.C., ed. 1985, '' The Archaeology of Cult, the Sanctuary at [[Phylakopi]]'', London: [[British School at Athens]] / [[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. {{ISBN|0-7126-6612-5}}
*Renfrew, A.C. and [[Ezra B. W. Zubrow]], eds. 1994, ''The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Archaeology''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-45620-3}}
*Renfrew, A.C. and [[Paul Bahn]], 1991, ''Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice'', London: Thames & Hudson. {{ISBN|0-500-28147-5}}. (Sixth edition 2012)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn|url=http://archive.org/details/METHODSINARCHEOLOGYCOLINRENFREWPAULBAHN|title=Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice|publisher=Thames & Hudson, LTD|year=2000|isbn=0-500-28147-5|edition=Third|location=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* Renfrew, A.C., 2000, ''Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership: The Ethical Crisis in Archaeology'', London: Duckworth. {{ISBN|0-7156-3034-2}}
*Renfrew, A.C., 2003, ''Figuring It Out: The Parallel Visions of Artists and Archaeologists'', London: Thames & Hudson. {{ISBN|0-500-05114-3}}
*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. {{ISBN|1-134-37040-7}}
*Renfrew, A.C., and Paul Bahn, ''Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods and Practice'', London: Thames & Hudson. {{ISBN|978-0-500-84138-9}}. (Fourth edition 2018). 
*Renfrew, A.C., 2008, ''Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind'', Modern Library. {{ISBN|0-679-64097-5}}
*Matsumura S., Forster P. and Renfrew C., eds., 2008, ''Simulations, Genetics and Human Prehistory'', Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archeological Research. {{ISBN|978-1-902937-45-8}}

==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.&nbsp;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<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Forster|first1=Peter|last2=Forster|first2=Lucy|last3=Renfrew|first3=Colin|last4=Forster|first4=Michael|date=2020-04-08|title=Phylogenetic network analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=117|issue=17|pages=9241–9243|language=en|doi=10.1073/pnas.2004999117|issn=0027-8424|pmid=32269081|pmc=7196762|doi-access=free|bibcode=2020PNAS..117.9241F}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Anatolian hypothesis]]
* [[Neuroarchaeology]]
* [[Cognitive archaeology#Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology (ECA)|Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*{{IMDb name | 1575132}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20101130050253/http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~acr10/ Renfrew's page at the McDonald Institute]
*[http://www.webofstories.com/gl/colin.renfrew Biographical interviews] from [[Web of Stories]] (video)
*[http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/renfrew.htm Interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314162109/http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/renfrew.htm |date=14 March 2017 }} with [[Alan Macfarlane]] (video)
*{{YouTube|3NrLZ8CzRWk|'Before Silk: Unsolved Mysteries of the Silk Road' by Colin Renfrew}} (video)
*Tribute: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/30/remembering-colin-renfrew-a-lover-of-modern-art-who-revolutionised-archaeology
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120329064532/http://www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/news/radio/podcast/links/ColinRenfrew.mp3 Lecture on looting and illicit antiquities] (MP3)

{{S-start}}
{{S-aca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Glyn Daniel]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Disney Professor of Archaeology|Disney Professor of Archaeology, Cambridge University]]|years=1981–2004}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Graeme Barker]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Alan Cottrell|Sir Alan Cottrell]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge|Master of]] [[Jesus College, Cambridge]]|years=1986–1996}}
{{s-aft|after=[[David Crighton]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{Disney Professors of Archaeology}}
{{Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge}}
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|title=Awards for Colin Renfrew
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{{Recipients of the Rivers Memorial Medal}}
{{Recipients of the Huxley Memorial Medal}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Renfrew, Colin}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:2024 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from County Durham]]
[[Category:20th-century Royal Air Force personnel]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force airmen]]
[[Category:People from St Albans]]
[[Category:People from Stockton-on-Tees]]
[[Category:People educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Cambridge Union]]
[[Category:English archaeologists]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Sheffield]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Southampton]]
[[Category:British cognitive scientists]]
[[Category:Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London]]
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers]]
[[Category:Historical linguists]]
[[Category:Disney Professors of Archaeology]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland]]
[[Category:Archaeogeneticists]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014]]