Mark Roberts

Who is Mark Roberts?

Mark Brian Roberts is an English archaeologist specialising in the study of the Palaeolithic. He is best known for his discovery and subsequent excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic site of Boxgrove Quarry in southern England. He is also a teacher and Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. In 1994, he was awarded the Stopes Medal for his contribution to the study of Palaeolithic humans and Pleistocene geology.

Born in Chichester, West Sussex, Roberts developed an interest in geology and archaeology at an early age, working at a series of local excavations before going off to study at the then-independent Institute of Archaeology in Bloomsbury, London in 1980. Soon after, he initiated excavations at Boxgrove, West Sussex, uncovering the best preserved Middle Palaeolithic site then known to archaeologists. Eventually, in 1993 the project unearthed remains belonging to a Homo heidelbergensis, which proved to be the earliest known hominin in Europe at that time. Boxgrove excavations continued until 1996, following which Roberts published the findings from the site, including the book Fairweather Eden, co-written with Mike Pitts.