Ronald Montagu Burrows (16 August 1867 – 14 May 1920) was a British
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and academic, who served as
Principal of
King's College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...
from 1913 to 1920.
Biography
He was born on 16 August 1867 in
Rugby, Warwickshire, England, the son of the Rev. Leonard Francis Burrows, a master at
Rugby School, and his wife Mary Vicars. He was educated at
Charterhouse School
(God having given, I gave)
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, president ...
. and matriculated at
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
in 1886, graduating in
Greats in 1890.
Burrows began his academic career as assistant to
Gilbert Murray,
Professor of Greek at the
University of Glasgow from 1891 to 1897. Burrows was then appointed Professor of Greek at
University College, Cardiff, where he taught from 1898 until 1908. He was Hulme Professor of Greek at the
University of Manchester between 1908 and 1913. In 1913, he was appointed
Principal of King's College London
This is a list of Principals of King's College London. The office of the Principal (Principal and President from 2009) is established by the Charter of King's College London as "the chief academic and administrative officer of the College". To da ...
, a post he held until his death in 1920. His time there was marked by the foundation of the
Koreas Chair.
Burrows was also involved in bringing Greece into the
First World War as a political and military ally of the United Kingdom. He was a strong, uncritical supporter of
Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos ( el, Ελευθέριος Κυριάκου Βενιζέλος, translit=Elefthérios Kyriákou Venizélos, ; – 18 March 1936) was a Greek statesman and a prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movem ...
.
Works
Burrows was a noted archaeologist who carried out excavations in
Greece at Pílos (ancient
Pylos
Pylos (, ; el, Πύλος), historically also known as Navarino, is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is th ...
, on the Coryphasium promontory) and the nearby island of
Sfaktiría. This work helped to establish studies of the
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450BC ...
. With
Percy and
Annie Ure, he undertook major excavations at
Rhitsona in
Boeotia.
References
Bibliography
*George Glasgow, ''Ronald Burrows: a memoir''. London, 1924.
External links
Encyclopædia Britannica ArticleCollected papers of Ronald M. Burrows
* (under multiple adjacent headings)
1867 births
1920 deaths
People educated at Charterhouse School
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Academics of Cardiff University
Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester
Principals of King's College London
Fellows of King's College London
British historians
British archaeologists
Scholars of ancient Greek pottery
British Christian socialists
{{UK-archaeologist-stub