Donald Reginald Brothwell, FRAI (1933 – 26 September 2016) was a British archaeologist, anthropologist and academic, who specialised in human palaeoecology and environmental archaeology.

He was prosecuted and ordered to pay a large fine (for which his father provided the money), but was called up for a second time after settling with the court.

[2][3] He continued his interest in archaeology while imprisoned, including excavating a bulldog skull that he found in the yard during his daily exercise.

[2][3] His research during this time led to him editing a volume with his colleague Eric Higgs, Science and Archaeology (1963), and a text book for archaeologists, Digging up Bones (1963).

[5] This was a new sub-department of the museum but it grew quickly with donations of human skeletons from the Royal College of Surgeons and the Department of Anatomy, University of Oxford.

[3] During his twelve years at the British Museum, he held the "only funded professional position studying archaeological human skeletal remains in the United Kingdom".

[2] However, that year he was offered and accepted the appointment of Professor of Human Palaeoecology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of York.

It was titled Bones and the Man: Studies in Honour of Don Brothwell,[10] was edited by Keith Dobney and Terry O'Connor, and included contributions by Graeme Barker and Chris Stringer.