10 In memorIAm Prof. phdr. rAdomÍr pleIner, drsC. Magister ferrariarum 1929 – 2015 R adomír Pleiner was born on 26 April 1929. His father Vladimír was a painter and a member of the famous Czech Legion; his mother originated from Russia. He studied prehistory and history at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Charles University in Prague, graduating in 1952. From 1953 to 1955 he carried out postgraduate work at the Institute of Archaeology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science, for which he obtained the degree of CSc (equivalent to PhD). An equally signiicant event in this period was his marriage to fellow archaeologist Ivana Hnízdová in 1955. He was able to continue his researches at the Institute, into the earliest production of iron and smithing techniques, writing his irst three monographs in 1955, 1958 and 1962. He developed considerable skills in metallography, which led to the creation of the laboratory at the Institute in 1963. From this time onwards Radomír took part in many excavations and experimental work both in Czecho- slovakia and abroad, in countries such as Poland, Russia, England, Scandinavia, Austria, Germany, and France, as well as contributing widely to symposia and conferences. In 1966-68 he participated in American expeditions to Iran and Afghanistan, and three years later he spent six months in the USA on an internship, at M.I.T. and the Universities of Chicago and California. These experiences led to the publication of studies of ironmaking in Persia, Assyria and India and his 1969 monograph on Iron Working in Ancient Greece. These works formed the basis of a dissertation for his second doctoral degree, Doctor Scientiarum, DrSc., awarded in 1981. In 1966 the Comité Pour la Sidérurgie Ancienne (CPSA) founded, under the auspices of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Science (UISPP), with Walter Guyan as President and Pleiner as Secretary. He held this position for the next forty years, creating a network of international and inter-disciplinary contacts with scholars engaged in study of the archaeology and the archaeometallurgy of iron, who became corresponding members of the CPSA. During this period he played a vital role in the rapid development of the discipline by collating new research, abstracts of publications, information on conferences and work in progress, published twice-yearly in Archeologické Rozhledy. These CPSA Communications comprise several thousand items, forming a crucial source of information in the pre-internet age. Key factors in this were Radomír's linguistic skills, enabling him to act as a bridge between the (old) east and the west, combined with his enormous energy. The contacts which he made and encouraged through this work resulted in him being a guiding light for several generations of scholars. Radomír maintained his connections with the Charles University in Prague: in 1968 he was appointed docent (Associate Professor) of prehistory and in 1992, after the so-called 'Velvet Revolution' he was appointed professor. Unfortunately he had to retire in 1993, along with other colleagues, due to the reduction in the Institute's budget. Although he was no longer in full-time employment his research continued unabated and his output of publications remained prodigious, with more than forty papers and books since 1993, in several languages, including his three classic works, representing the fruits of his many years of research - The Celtic Sword (Oxford, 1993), Iron in Archaeology: The European Bloomery Smelters (Prague, 2000), and Iron in Archaeology: Early European Blacksmiths (Prague, 2006). The latter volume was produced under particularly difficult conditions due to the loss of his archive of samples and notes, and the library in the basement of the Institute of Archaeology, during the disastrous floods of 2002. This would have destroyed the spirit of a lesser man, but the fact that Radomír was able to complete this volume with little delay is a tribute to his determination and to his thorough knowledge of the source material. Radomír Pleiner (right) with Boris Kolchin during experiments in Russia, around 1962. Photo from the Institute of Archaeology RAS Moscow, courtesy of Vladimir Zavyalov. In The Crucible (HMS News) 88, Spring 2015