Robert Laffineur

After earning a PhD in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Liège (L’orfèvrerie rhodienne orientalisante, 1975), Robert Laffineur became a member of the French Archaeological School at Athens (1976–1978), and later full-time lecturer, tenured Professor and full Professor at the University of Liège, teaching ancient Greek art history and archaeology. He was awarded the Delepierre Prize from the Association pour l’encouragement des études grecques en France (1979).
 
In 1986, Laffineur founded the Rencontres égéennes internationales (International Aegean Conferences), which were held every two years, initially in Liège and later at foreign universities, including in the United States (Temple University Philadlphia in 1996, Yale University in 2002, UCLA in 2006, and The University of Texas at Austin in 2020), and in 1987, he launched the publication series Aegaeum. Annales d’archéologie égéenne de l’Université de Liège, both of which focused on the archaeology of Bronze Age Greece. For these two initiatives, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (Philadelphia) in 2004.
 
Laffineur participated in the excavations at Amathus in Cyprus and led the excavations of the French School at Athens in Kallion (ancient Kallipolis in Doris, 1977–1979), as well as those of the Belgian School at Athens in the Mycenaean sector of the acropolis of Thorikos (Attica, 2005–2022), which included GPR and magnetic prospection surveys. He also carried out topographic missions in Crete (in Malia and Palaikastro).
 
He held seminars on Mycenaean Greece at the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Iași in Romania (April 2003), the Francqui Chair Belgium at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve (2006–2007) and was a visiting Professor at the Australian Archaeological Institute (July-September 2010).
 
He was presented with a Festschrift volume, Ra-pi-ne-u. Studies on the Mycenaean World offered to Robert Laffineur for his 70th Birthday, during a tribute session Honouring Odysseus: Celebrating the Work of Robert Laffineur (Athens, American School of Classical Studies, March 3, 2017), organized by Prof. Jan Driessen — the editor of the volume —, with the support of the Belgian Embassy in Athens.
 
Robert Laffineur was appointed Honorary Consul of the Hellenic Republic in Liège for the provinces of Wallonia in September 2014. In addition to his administrative duties, he organized a series of events and activities in Liège, especially in 2021 to celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Greek War of Independence in 1821. The most notable event was a Mikis Theodorakis concert (Axion Esti, Prométhée enchaîné and Concertino crétois) with the Symphonic Orchestra and Choir of the Royal Conservatory of Liege and the Liege Symphony Choir, conducted by maestro Patrick Baton, at the Liege Philharmonic Hall.
 
Robert Laffineur is a Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown (Belgium, 2010).

r.laffineur@uliege.be