King’s College’s Runciman Lecture 2016

The ‘Coming of the Greeks’ was often placed in the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ around 1000 BC, until the decipherment of the Minoan Linear B script showed that the Mycenaeans were speaking a form of the Greek language some 500 years earlier. The earlier prehistory of the population of Greece remains controversial. The lecture will seek to review the fresh evidence made available by archaeology, by historical linguistics and by study of ancient DNA. It will conclude, with Sir John Myres, that “the Greeks were always in process of becoming”.

Colin Renfrew lectured in prehistoric archaeology at the University of Sheffield and then Southampton before becoming Disney Professor of Archaeology in Cambridge from 1981 to 2004 and Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, where he is now Senior Fellow. He has excavated in Greece, mainly in the Cycladic Islands, where he now directs a programme of work on the island of Keros and nearby islands. He sits in the House of Lords as Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn.

This event is open to all and free to attend. Booking is not required.

Please direct enquiries to [email protected].

King’s College,
Great Hall and Entrance Hall,
King’s Building, Strand Campus