Cyprian Broodbank


Cyprian Broodbank, is a British archaeologist and academic. Since October 2014, he has been Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge and director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. From 2010 to 2014, he was Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology at University College London.

Early life

Broodbank was born on 26 December 1964. He studied history at the University of Oxford, graduating in 1986 Bachelor of Arts. He then went on to study for a Master of Arts degree at the University of Bristol, completing it in 1987. He undertook postgraduate study at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, and completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1996. His doctoral thesis was titled This small world the great: an island archaeology of the early Cyclades.

Academic career

Broodbank began his academic career as a junior research fellow at University College, Oxford from 1991 to 1993. In 1993, he joined University College London as a lecturer in Aegean archaeology based in the Institute of Archaeology. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 2001 and to reader in 2009. In October 2010, he was appointed Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology.
In November 2013, it was announced that he had been elected to the position of Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. He took up the appointment in October 2014. In addition, he is the Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and a Professorial Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
He was awarded the 2003 James R. Wiseman Book Award by the Archaeological Institute of America for his monograph An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades. He was also awarded the 2001 Runciman Award by the Anglo-Hellenic League for the monograph. His monograph The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World has been described as 'an unprecedented work of scholarship; it is unlikely ever to be matched' and as a 'landmark publication'.

Personal life

In 2006, Broodbank married Dr Lindsay Close Spencer. Together they have two children; one daughter and one son.

Honours

On 11 October 2007, Broodbank was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In 2014, he was awarded the Wolfson Prize for History for his book The Making of the Middle Sea. On 16 July 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.