It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Venceslas Kruta on 19 July 2026 at the age of 86. Professor Kruta was a leading authority on the protohistory of Europe and the ancient Celts, and a long-standing member of the Honorary Committee of UISPP. Born in Saumur on 4 November 1939, he devoted his life to understanding the material culture, exchange networks and belief systems of Iron Age Europe, aiming to situate Celtic societies within the broader history of the continent.
After studying prehistory and classical archaeology at Masaryk University in Brno and working at the Institute of Archaeology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague, Kruta returned to France, where he obtained his doctorate in history at the Sorbonne in 1974. From 1972 he directed studies in European protohistory at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne), later becoming Professor Emeritus, and he also led the Centre d’études celtiques in Paris. His research focused particularly on the commercial and cultural relations between Central Europe and the Mediterranean in the first millennium BC, a field in which he set enduring standards.
Kruta was the author of numerous books that shaped several generations of archaeologists and historians, among them Les Celtes. Histoire et dictionnaire, des origines à la romanisation et au christianisme and Le monde des anciens Celtes. He was also one of the main architects of the legendary 1991 exhibition I Celti: la prima Europa at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, that had a lasting influence on contemporary European identity concepts. He also played a key role in the accompanying exhibition catalogue, published in multiple languages, which quickly became a major reference tool. Kruta was widely honoured for his scholarly achievements and elected to several other learned societies, including the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi ed Italici, the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut and the Real Academia de la Historia.
With the passing of Venceslas Kruta, the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences mourns the loss of a colleague whose generosity, intellectual rigour and breadth of culture inspired the international archaeological community.