Rate My Professor Thilo Rehren

Thilo Rehren is the A. G. Leventis Professor for Archaeological Sciences at the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC) of The Cyprus Institute, where he served as Director for five years until 2023. He holds a Visiting Professorship at the University of Science and Technology in Beijing and an honorary research affiliation at the University of Cambridge. Rehren received his MSc in Mineralogy from the Technical University Clausthal in 1984 and his PhD in Petrology from the University of Freiburg in 1988, after studying Earth Sciences with theses on copper-silver mineralization in southwest Germany and volcanic processes on Nisyros, Greece. Following a postdoctoral position at the University of Oxford, he began his career at the Institut für Archäometallurgie of the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum in Bochum, Germany. In 1999, he was appointed to the inaugural Chair in Archaeological Materials and Technologies at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology, building an international research group of postgraduate students and postdocs. He then undertook a five-year secondment to establish UCL Qatar as a center of excellence in museology, conservation, and archaeology before joining The Cyprus Institute in 2017.

Rehren’s research reconstructs ancient high-temperature processes for manufacturing metals, glass, glazes, and ceramics, employing materials science methods alongside archaeological and historical data to illuminate past technological achievements. His work spans from 6500 BCE to the 20th century CE across materials from magnesium to platinum. Key contributions include demonstrating primary glass production at Qantir-Piramesses, Egypt ("Late Bronze Age Glass Production at Qantir-Piramesses, Egypt," Science, 2005), the emergence of tin bronzes from tainted ores ("Tainted ores and the rise of tin bronzes in Eurasia, c. 6500 years ago," Antiquity, 2013), early iron beads from meteoritic iron (2013), chromium steel in ancient Persia (2020), and analyses of Tutankhamun’s glass artifacts and the Terracotta Army bronzes. Rehren received the Cyprus Research Prize for Distinguished Researcher 2022 in Social Sciences and Humanities and is ranked among the world’s top archaeologists by ScholarGPS. His former students hold leading academic positions globally, reflecting his profound impact on the field.