Cunliffe's decision to become an archaeologist was sparked at the age of nine by the discovery of Roman remains on his uncle's farm in Somerset.

In 1966, he became an unusually young professor when he took the chair at the newly founded Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton.

His interest in Iron Age Britain and Europe generated a number of publications and he became an acknowledged authority on the Celts.

One of his most recent projects has been in the Najerilla valley, La Rioja, Spain, which straddles "the interface between the Celtiberian heartland of central Iberia and the Atlantic zone of the Bay of Biscay".

Cunliffe inspired the name for the character "Currant Bunliffe", an archaeologist in David Macaulay's 1979 book, Motel of the Mysteries.