Dennell studied at the University of Cambridge, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1969 and a PhD in 1977. His doctoral thesis was titled, Early farming in South Bulgaria: 6th to 3rd Millenium b.c.,[2] and was published as a volume in the British Archaeological Reports International Series in 1978.[3]
He joined the University of Sheffield in 1973, and became a senior lecturer in 1983, a reader in 1994, and a professor in 1995. He was also the Field Director of the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan between 1988 and 1999, and the head of the archaeology department at Sheffield between 1999 and 2002.[2] After taking voluntary redundancy from Sheffield in 2009, Dennell joined the University of Exeter as an honorary professor in 2013.[2]
Dennell, Robin (1983). European economic prehistory: a new approach. London: Academic Press. ISBN978-0122091803.
Rendell, H. M.; Dennell, R. W.; Halim, M. A. (1989). Pleistocene and Palaeolithic Investigations in the Soan Valley, Northern Pakistan. British Archaeological Reports International Series 544. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN9780860546917.
Dennell, Robin (2004). Early Hominin Landscapes in Northern Pakistan: Investigations in the Pabbi Hills. British Archaeological Reports International Series 1265. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN9781841713717.