Professor Lord Colin Renfrew – 1937-2024

The Department of Archaeology and McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge mourn the death and celebrate the extraordinary life of Professor Colin Renfrew, Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, formerly tenth Disney Professor of Archaeology, the McDonald’s founding Director, and Master of Jesus College.

Colin was, and will always remain, one of the titans of modern archaeology, a distinguished public figure, and a fine friend and colleague to innumerable archaeologists around the world. This loss makes the world of archaeology a poorer place intellectually, as well as in terms of the sheer energy and optimism that he brought to everything he did.

From his first years as one of the brave new archaeologists of the 1960s, Colin stood out as an exceptional mind, and as a spirit of profound, exciting and rigorous change. He pioneered new, theoretically informed ways of thinking about the explanation of social and political change in the past, within and then far beyond his first enduring regional love for the prehistoric Aegean, while advocating scientific techniques of dating and provenance as an integral part of archaeological endeavour. From this perspective, he was one of the first to appreciate the significance of the calibration of radiocarbon dates for the understanding of European prehistory. 

He went on to ask equally fresh questions about the link between language evolution and archaeology and, as the first Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, championed some of the earliest applications of archaeogenetics, as well as a critical and investigative approach to the illicit antiquities market. His fieldwork expanded to Orkney, and latterly returned to the more southerly isles of the Cyclades, subject of his doctoral research, and to remarkable discoveries on the island of Keros. 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.

As those who knew him will amply testify, there was far, far more to Colin than the world-leading and much honoured archaeologist. He took on the mantle of a working peer in the House of Lords, where he spoke up for matters of heritage and archaeological legislation with the customary eloquence and lapidary reasoning of a one-time President of the Cambridge Union.

He was a passionate and knowledgeable expert and collector of modern art, by which Jesus College under his care remains permanently graced. Social events under his hospitality became unforgettable and often hugely convivial gatherings of brilliant minds from the widespread fields that he drew together, and under the right circumstances often culminated in demonstrations of Colin’s skills as a dancer. Last but far from least, he was a much-loved husband to his wife Jane, and father to Helena, Alban and Magnus.

Colin passed away peacefully in his sleep during the night of Saturday 23 to Sunday 24 November 2024. All of us at Cambridge extend our heartfelt condolences and profound respects to his family and to all those who loved and knew him.