Glenn Summerhayes

Glenn Reginald Summerhayes (born 1954) is an Australian-born New Zealand archaeologist, and is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Otago, specialising in the Lapita people and pottery and the settlement of the Western Pacific and Papua New Guinea.

Early life and education Summerhayes was born in Redfern, Sydney. His interest in archaeology was sparked as a child but he did not begin studying it until after he had completed a degree in history at the University of Sydney.

Academic career Summerhayes was employed full time with the Department of Veterans' Affairs while doing fieldwork and completing a Master of Arts at the University of Sydney in 1987, with a thesis on Melanesian ceramics. During the early 1990s he undertook several seasons of fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, became curator at the Museum of Victoria of the Vanuatu collection and registrar of the Victorian Archaeological Survey. His work analysing pottery collections showed that different clay tempers were used to make Lapita pottery raising questions about the movement of both pottery and people. It was edited by three of his former students: Anne Ford, Ben Shaw and Dylan Gaffney.

Honours and awards In 2014 Summerhayes was appointed an Officer of the Order of Logohu.

In the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours List Summerhayes was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, for service to tertiary education, and to history.

Selected works

A full bibliography of Summerhayes's publications can be found in the Introduction of the Festschrift.