Eminent archaeologist and explorer, Professor Lord Colin Renfrew, “The greatest explorer of the Cycladic civilization”died at the age of 87.
Reportedly The municipality of Koufonisia, located in the south of the Aegean Sea, decided to keep the flag over the city hall at half-staff for the next three days in honor of the great scientist.
The head of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, Dimitris Athanassoulis, announced the death of Lord Renfrew in a post on Facebook, and Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni noted that “Colin Renfrew leaves behind a tremendous legacy and innovation.”
He was born on 25 July 1937 in Stockton-on-Tees, England, and read natural sciences and then archeology and anthropology at Cambridge University, graduating in 1962. In 1965 he defended his doctoral dissertation “Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures of the Cyclades Islands and Their External Relations.”
He led excavations at Quanterness on Orkney and Phylakopi on the island of Milos in Greece. In 1973, Renfrew published a book “Before Civilization: The Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe” in which he challenges the assumption that prehistoric cultural innovation originated in the Middle East and then spread to Europe. Together with archaeologist Maria Gimbutas, he carried out excavations in Sitagroi, in northern Greece.
In 1981 he was elected Disney Professor of Archeology at the University of Cambridge, a position he held until his retirement. In 1990, Renfrew was appointed founding director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
From 2006 to 2008, he directed new excavations on the Cycladic island of Keros and was one of the leaders of the Keros Island Survey.
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