From Daniel Miller, UCL
I hope readers won’t mind a short personal condolence to the family and friends of F.R. Allchin who was my PhD supervisor. Based at the University of Cambridge since 1959 he was the leading UK expert on the archaeology of South Asia, co-author with his wife Bridget of the seminal textbooks on this topic. He was a genial and generous figure who fully supported my work, mainly by making sure that no one in the University tried to stop me doing what was then seen as a rather unconventional piece of research in ethno-archaeology. For those who knew him he appealed as the kind of `old-school’ `gentleman-scholar’ who maintained his affection and concern for colleagues in both South Asia and the UK.
Danny
Allchin’s joint and edited publications on the archaeology and history of South Asia include: excavation reports of Piklihal (1960) and Utnur (1963) as well as monographs and volumes on Neolithic Cattle Keepers of South India (1963), The Birth of Indian Civilisation (1968), The Archaeology of Afghanistan (1978), The Rise of Indian Civilisation in India and Pakistan (1982) and The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia (1995). His 1964 translation of Tulsi Das’ Kavitavali demonstrates the true depth and breadth of his scholarship.
The Sunday Times has published an extensive obituary.
2010-07-08