Lady Jane Renfrew, Cambridge

A Traga-Mundos – livros e vinhos, coisas e loisas do Douro em Vila Real, Portugal, enviou cerca de quatro dezenas de publicações em língua inglesa, para um evento organizado pela Prof.ª Dr.ª Mila Simões de Abreu, em 8 de Novembro de 2014, no McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research em Cambridge, Inglaterra.

DOURO in CAMBRIDGE - an afternoon in honour of Lady Jane Renfrew

It is a great pleasure to invite you to attend an afternoon in honour of Lady Jane Renfrew.

In 2012, Lady Jane donated a considerable part of her private library to the Archæological Unit and to the Library of the Botanical Garden of the Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro in Vila Real, Portugal.

   The volumes cover over 150 years of knowledge and research in the fields of archæology, prehistory, history, botany, biology and related sciences. In some cases the texts are of great economic value, but all of them are important, both for students and university members of UTAD. The books are now also available upon request to the general public.

   As an acknowledgement, we thought the best way to thank her was to create a “prehistoric garden” on the UTAD campus. The garden, with plants eaten and used by our ancestors in a distant past, was inaugurated by Lord and Lady Renfrew in May 2013 and since then it has been giving pleasure to students and staff of UTAD and has been visited by many people from outside the University.

   In recognition for her continuing support of UTAD the Rector awarded her the silver medal, the highest award of the University.

The medal will be presented to Lady Jane Renfrew on the 8th of November at 6:30pm in the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER.

   We hope you will join us.

The wine tasting is organized by the Cambridge University Portuguese Speakers Society

Lady Jane

Renfrew of Kaimsthorn—brief biographical notes

   Already when she was young, Jane expressed an interest in the study of the past, having made her first archæological dig when she was little more than 12 years old. When she was doing her undergraduate degree at Cambridge (New Hall College), she published her first book entitled “Antiquary on horseback” (1963), with her maiden name of Jane M. Ewbank. The volume is the fruit of the patient work of transcribing and editing manuscripts left by Thomas Machell, rector of Kirby Thore (Cumbria).
    At Cambridge, in the Haddon Library, she meets fellow student Colin Renfrew with whom she later marries and has 3 children. The famous Professor Glyn Daniel says, in his autobiography, “Some Small Harvest”, that giving lessons in his office at St. John’s College to Colin Renfrew, Barry Cunliffe, Jane Ewbank and Ruth Whitehouse were some of the most pleasant memories of those times (Daniel 1986: 448).
    As a student, Jane further developed her interest of studying the past and got interested in botany. Along with Colin she took part of excavations in Greece and other areas of the Balkans and collected seeds in museums and excavations of the region that would be the basis for her doctoral thesis in Cambridge.
Between 1967–1972, she was Head of the Department of Ancient History, at the University of Sheffield and later Visiting Lecturer and Part-time Professor in the Department of Archæology at the University of Southampton (1972–1981). In the early 1980s, she came back to Cambridge, where apart from being Affiliate Professor of the Division of Archæology , of the Department of Archæology and Anthropology, she is for 11 years the Master's wife at Jesus College (1986–1997).
     In the last years she is Byre Professor of Archæology, Fellow of the Library, Steward of the Garden at Lucy Cavendish College. In fact, at LCC she created the “Anglo-Saxon Herb Garden” (a collection of plants used before 1066), opened annually to the general public.
     Her main interests are the use of plants in pre-history, the origin and development of agriculture, food and wine in antiquity, the origin of the vine and wine in the Mediterranean.

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