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Faculty of Classics

 

Biography

John Robb is Professor of European Prehistory in the Department of Archaeology; he is also Director of Studies in Archaeology at Peterhouse. John received his first training in mediaeval English literature (BA, University of Chicago, 1983), and then went on to study anthropological archaeology at the University of Michigan (MA, 1989; PhD, 1995). His PhD thesis dealt with inequality and gender in Italian prehistory, combining evidence of human skeletons, archaeology and prehistoric art. After a brief post-doc at Southern Illinois University (1995-6), he taught at the University of Southampton for five years (1996-2001). He has been teaching in Cambridge since 2001 and run major projects on e.g. on southern Italian archaeology and the theoretical history of the human body. Besides these topics, he is interested in material culture theory, burial taphonomy and ritual, and prehistoric art. John’s full staff profile can be found on the Department of Archaeology website here.

Professor of European Prehistory, Department of Archaeology
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Affiliations

Latest news

Professor Patricia Easterling

19 August 2026

The Faculty is very sad to report that our dear colleague Professor Patricia (Pat) Easterling has died, at the age of 92. She was Fellow of Newnham College from 1958 to 1987 and Professor of Greek at University College London from 1987 to 1994, when she returned to Cambridge as the 36 th (and first female) Regius Professor...

Cambridge Classicists on Nolan's Odyssey

17 July 2026

Today marks the highly anticipated theatrical release of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of The Odyssey . Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, the film is generating lots of discussion across the global classics community. As people everywhere head to cinemas, academics from the Faculty are already exploring how...

Script Keepers Network Wins Cultural Collaboration Award

28 July 2026

The Script Keepers Network —co-led by Pippa Steele (Faculty of Classics and the VIEWS Project ) and Tim Brookes ( Endangered Alphabets Project )—has been awarded the prestigious NCACE Emerging Academic Cultural Collaboration Award by the National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange . The award recognises outstanding...

New Fellows welcomed to the British Academy

17 July 2026

The Faculty notes with pleasure that Professor James Warren has been elected to the British Academy’s Fellowship , joining an eminent community of scholars who share a commitment to advancing the humanities and social sciences. Current British Academy Fellows in the Faculty include Professors Emily Gowers, Stephen Oakley...