Alan Gordon Thorne was born in Neutral Bay, Sydney, on 1 March 1939, and was educated at North Sydney Boys High. He started his working life as a cadet journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald in 1957. He graduated from the University of Sydney in 1960 after majoring in zoology and anthropology. While studying for his PhD at the University of Sydney, (awarded 1975), he was a research fellow in the Archaeology Department in the Institute of Advanced Studies (now the Department of Archaeology and Natural History, in the College of Asia and the Pacific) at The Australian National University. He held the position of Senior Fellow there until his retirement.