Mark Roberts (archaeologist)
Encyclopedia
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 (1998), co-written with Michael Pitts
.
Since then, Roberts has focused his excavations at other sites, such as the Bronze and Iron Age landscape of Bow Hill, West Sussex, where he was involved in excavating Goosehill Camp
, and also the Late Mediaeval house at Blackden, Cheshire, which is the home to the novelist Alan Garner
, and where he co-directed excavations with fellow archaeologist Richard Morris
.
, West Sussex
in 1961, and lived with his parents and three younger siblings (two brothers and a sister) in the town of East Preston
. Initially attending the local County Primary School, his family later relocated to Worthing
, from where he began attending Elm Grove School. Passing his Eleven Plus
exam, he began studying at Worthing High School
. He disliked school, although did both O levels and then A levels, whilst meanwhile maintaining an interest in fossils, which he collected from the local chalk pits. In 1978, Roberts volunteered to work on an archaeological excavation - run by the Sussex Archaeological Field Unit - of a Bronze Age
site known as Black Patch in the East Sussex
chalk downs overlooking Newhaven
, a site that he would later tell an interviewer has remained one of his favourites for the rest of his life.
Developing an interest in the archaeological discipline, in 1980 Roberts began studying for a BA
degree in the subject at the then-independent Institute of Archaeology
(IOA) in Bloomsbury
, London
. He had been influenced in his choice of university by the fact that Peter Drewett, a man he had worked with through the Sussex Field Unit, occasionally lectured there, and because it was opposite a rugby
club where he could indulge in his love for the sport. At the IOA, he played rugby for University College London
(UCL) 1st XV during the first year, and rose to become captain of the team in the second, although during his third year of university studies left this club and signed on to play for Finchley RFC instead. According to his own account, it was during his time studying at the Institute he was "thrown out of the UCL union
bar for a one man rendition of a lewd and sexist song" and was also "reprimanded for carving and planting a Chalk phallus in the trench of a particularly difficult excavator".
On breaks from his university studies, Roberts returned home to West Sussex, where he continued excavating with the Sussex Archaeological Field Unit at a project unearthing a prehistoric enclosure and field banks on Halnaker Hill, which overlooked the little village of Halnaker
. Adjacent to Halnaker was a quarry, then being dug out by the Amey Roadstone Corporation (ARC), whose foreman, Godfrey Udeil, subsequently informed the archaeologists that his men had found a ditch and pot sherds dating from the Romano-British period
in their gravel pits. The Institute of Archaeology decided to open up excavations of this ditch in 1982 and 1983, with Roberts being employed as supervisor for the first of these two seasons by site director Owen Bedwin. The excavations actually led to the discovery of a Romano-British farmstead, although the site also revealed evidence of older occupation; many of the excavators spent their free time hunting for the Palaeolithic stone tools - or "palaeos" - which were found scattered about the Quarry. Although he had never dug a Palaeolithic site before, these random finds began to interest Roberts, and when he showed them to the Department of the Environment
's chief archaeologist Geoffrey Wainwright
on the latter's tour of the excavation, it spiked his interest too.
, although Boxgrove
was the nearest large village, and the site came within the boundaries of the Boxgrove civil parish
, and it is for this reason that the archaeological site became known as "Boxgrove".
In his dissertation, Roberts drew on the wealth of recently published material about the geology and Palaeolithic archaeology of Sussex. Archaeologists had first began exploring various quarries in the Sussex area for Palaeolithic remains in the 1970s, taking advantage of the exposed geological layers that had been cut away in the preceding decades. In 1977 archaeologist John Wymer and geologist Roy Shephard-Thorn visited the area in order to gain a better understanding of its local geology, whilst the curator of Chichester District Museum, Andrew Woodcock, had begun a project to investigate Palaeolithic Sussex. Woodcock had noted the discovery of various Palaeolithic stone tools at the Slindon Quarry (which was near to the Boxgrove Quarry), and opened a small excavation at the site, unearthing a collection of lithics and several mammal bones that were in an undisturbed layer. Woodcock called on the aid of Shephard-Thom and other geologists to aid him in his study, eventually coming to the conclusion that the current understanding of Sussex geology was far too oversimplified.
, France, and so Pedersen contacted Simon Parfitt at his home in London to inform him of his discovery. Suspecting that the bone had most likely belonged to a prehistoric deer, Parfitt did not immediately rush to Boxgrove, only inspecting it upon his next visit to the site; as Roberts and Mike Pitts later related in their account of its discovery:
Parfitt finally revealed to Roberts that he was "90 per cent certain" that the bone had come from a hominin in the middle of their annual Christmas dinner at the local Anglesey Arms pub. English Heritage
eventually decided to issue a news release of the hominid bone's discovery on 16 May 1994, but stressed to the assembled journalists that they must not publish this discovery until 26 May, because the academic journal Nature
had obtained first rights to the story. Nonetheless, the journalists from The Times
disregarded this, publishing a story on the bone in their 17 May edition that proclaimed "English Heritage finds the Oldest Human in Europe - and he is English".
' 1979 song "Too Much Too Young
" to himself when thinking about the project.
that was entitled Fairweather Eden: Life in Britain half a million years ago as revealed by the excavations at Boxgrove. Published by Arrow Books, Fairweather Eden was designed for a popular audience. One reviewer of the book, A.M. Chadwick, noted that within it:
Fairweather Eden was followed by the publication of the full archaeological report on the excavations at Boxgrove, co-written with Simon Parfitt. Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex (1999) was published by English Heritage.
and his wife Griselda.
Roberts' hobbies include fly fishing, shooting, rugby, cricket, cooking and reading novels.
The Palaeolithic archaeologist A.M. Chadwick mentioned that "Roberts is a noted shooting and fishing man, and whilst I was at Boxgrove in 1988, wild game constituted a substantial part of the menu (even including a seagull on one memorable and not too successful occasion!)."
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
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
Boxgrove Quarry
Boxgrove Quarry is a gravel quarry and Lower Palaeolithic archaeological site at Boxgrove in the British-English county of West Sussex. It has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest...
in southern England. He is also a teacher and Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology
The UCL Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of the Social & Historical Sciences Faculty of University College London , England. It is one of the largest departments of archaeology in the world, with over 80 members of academic staff and 500 students...
at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
. In 1994, he was awarded the Stopes Medal for his contribution to the study of Palaeolithic humans and Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
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
Homo heidelbergensis
Homo heidelbergensis is an extinct species of the genus Homo which may be the direct ancestor of both Homo neanderthalensis in Europe and Homo sapiens. The best evidence found for these hominins date between 600,000 and 400,000 years ago. H...
, 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 (1998), co-written with Michael Pitts
Michael Pitts
Mike Pitts, who has occasionally written under the name of Michael Pitts, is an English freelance journalist and archaeologist who specialises in the study of British prehistory...
.
Since then, Roberts has focused his excavations at other sites, such as the Bronze and Iron Age landscape of Bow Hill, West Sussex, where he was involved in excavating Goosehill Camp
Goosehill Camp
Goosehill Camp is a prehistoric earthwork that dates back to the Iron Age. It consists of two concentric banks and ditches. The inner enclosure has one entrance and surround two levelled hut sites. Goosehill Camp is within the Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve, on the South...
, and also the Late Mediaeval house at Blackden, Cheshire, which is the home to the novelist Alan Garner
Alan Garner
With his first book published, Garner abandoned his work as a labourer and gained a job as a freelance television reporter, living a "hand to mouth" lifestyle on a "shoestring" budget...
, and where he co-directed excavations with fellow archaeologist Richard Morris
Richard Morris (archaeologist)
Richard Morris OBE is an English archaeologist and historian who specialises in the study of churchyard and battlefield archaeology. Having been involved in the discipline since the early 1970s, he has worked at a number of British universities, including the University of York, the University of...
.
Early life: 1961-1982
Roberts was born in ChichesterChichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
in 1961, and lived with his parents and three younger siblings (two brothers and a sister) in the town of East Preston
East Preston, West Sussex
East Preston is a village and civil parish in the Arun district of West Sussex, England. It lies roughly half way between Littlehampton and Worthing...
. Initially attending the local County Primary School, his family later relocated to Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, from where he began attending Elm Grove School. Passing his Eleven Plus
Eleven plus
In the United Kingdom, the 11-plus or Eleven plus is an examination administered to some students in their last year of primary education, governing admission to various types of secondary school. The name derives from the age group for secondary entry: 11–12 years...
exam, he began studying at Worthing High School
Worthing High School
Worthing High School is a Foundation trust comprehensive school located in Worthing, West Sussex. It caters for academic years 8-11 and has some 900 children on roll. The school is a specialist Business and Enterprise College.-History:...
. He disliked school, although did both O levels and then A levels, whilst meanwhile maintaining an interest in fossils, which he collected from the local chalk pits. In 1978, Roberts volunteered to work on an archaeological excavation - run by the Sussex Archaeological Field Unit - of a Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
site known as Black Patch in the East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
chalk downs overlooking Newhaven
Newhaven, East Sussex
Newhaven is a town in the Lewes District of East Sussex in England. It lies at the mouth of the River Ouse, on the English Channel coast, and is a ferry port for services to France.-Origins:...
, a site that he would later tell an interviewer has remained one of his favourites for the rest of his life.
Developing an interest in the archaeological discipline, in 1980 Roberts began studying for a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in the subject at the then-independent Institute of Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology
The UCL Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of the Social & Historical Sciences Faculty of University College London , England. It is one of the largest departments of archaeology in the world, with over 80 members of academic staff and 500 students...
(IOA) in Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He had been influenced in his choice of university by the fact that Peter Drewett, a man he had worked with through the Sussex Field Unit, occasionally lectured there, and because it was opposite a rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
club where he could indulge in his love for the sport. At the IOA, he played rugby for University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
(UCL) 1st XV during the first year, and rose to become captain of the team in the second, although during his third year of university studies left this club and signed on to play for Finchley RFC instead. According to his own account, it was during his time studying at the Institute he was "thrown out of the UCL union
University College London Union
University College London Union , founded in 1893, has a credible claim to be England's oldest students' union. It was formed with the following objectives: "the promotion of social intercourse and of the means of recreation, physical and mental, of the students of University College, and the...
bar for a one man rendition of a lewd and sexist song" and was also "reprimanded for carving and planting a Chalk phallus in the trench of a particularly difficult excavator".
On breaks from his university studies, Roberts returned home to West Sussex, where he continued excavating with the Sussex Archaeological Field Unit at a project unearthing a prehistoric enclosure and field banks on Halnaker Hill, which overlooked the little village of Halnaker
Halnaker
Halnaker is a hamlet in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A285 road 3.5 miles northeast of Chichester, where it follows the line of the Roman road to London called Stane Street. There is a traditional pub, The Anglesey Arms and a blacksmiths shop. Goodwood House is...
. Adjacent to Halnaker was a quarry, then being dug out by the Amey Roadstone Corporation (ARC), whose foreman, Godfrey Udeil, subsequently informed the archaeologists that his men had found a ditch and pot sherds dating from the Romano-British period
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
in their gravel pits. The Institute of Archaeology decided to open up excavations of this ditch in 1982 and 1983, with Roberts being employed as supervisor for the first of these two seasons by site director Owen Bedwin. The excavations actually led to the discovery of a Romano-British farmstead, although the site also revealed evidence of older occupation; many of the excavators spent their free time hunting for the Palaeolithic stone tools - or "palaeos" - which were found scattered about the Quarry. Although he had never dug a Palaeolithic site before, these random finds began to interest Roberts, and when he showed them to the Department of the Environment
Department of the Environment
Department of the Environment or Department for the Environment may refer to:-Australia:* Department of the Environment and Water Resources...
's chief archaeologist Geoffrey Wainwright
Geoffrey Wainwright
Geoffrey Wainwright is a British Methodist theologian.Born in Monk Bretton, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, in 1939, Geoffrey Wainwright is an ordained minister of the British Methodist Church. He received his university education in Cambridge, Geneva and Rome. He holds the Dr. Théol. degree from...
on the latter's tour of the excavation, it spiked his interest too.
Boxgrove Quarry: 1982-1996
Boxgrove Quarry was an area that had been quarried for several decades throughout the 20th century. The nearest village to the site was HalnakerHalnaker
Halnaker is a hamlet in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A285 road 3.5 miles northeast of Chichester, where it follows the line of the Roman road to London called Stane Street. There is a traditional pub, The Anglesey Arms and a blacksmiths shop. Goodwood House is...
, although Boxgrove
Boxgrove
Boxgrove is a village and civil parish in the Chichester District of the English county of West Sussex, about five kilometres north east of the city of Chichester. The village is just south of the A285 road which follows the line of the Roman road Stane Street.The parish has an area of...
was the nearest large village, and the site came within the boundaries of the Boxgrove civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
, and it is for this reason that the archaeological site became known as "Boxgrove".
Initial survey: 1982
Having worked in the Boxgrove Quarry unearthing the Romano-British farmstead, Mark Roberts had become particularly interested by the Palaeolithic archaeology of the site, and decided that he would use this as the basis for his dissertation that was required to complete his BA in archaeology at the Institute. At the time "struggling to find money for beer and pencils", in 1982 he undertook a small survey of the quarry.In his dissertation, Roberts drew on the wealth of recently published material about the geology and Palaeolithic archaeology of Sussex. Archaeologists had first began exploring various quarries in the Sussex area for Palaeolithic remains in the 1970s, taking advantage of the exposed geological layers that had been cut away in the preceding decades. In 1977 archaeologist John Wymer and geologist Roy Shephard-Thorn visited the area in order to gain a better understanding of its local geology, whilst the curator of Chichester District Museum, Andrew Woodcock, had begun a project to investigate Palaeolithic Sussex. Woodcock had noted the discovery of various Palaeolithic stone tools at the Slindon Quarry (which was near to the Boxgrove Quarry), and opened a small excavation at the site, unearthing a collection of lithics and several mammal bones that were in an undisturbed layer. Woodcock called on the aid of Shephard-Thom and other geologists to aid him in his study, eventually coming to the conclusion that the current understanding of Sussex geology was far too oversimplified.
Initial excavation: 1983-1992
In 1983, Roberts decided to begin actual excavation at Boxgrove.Discovering hominin remains: 1993-1994
In 1993 Roberts decided that in order to answer a few questions about the site's geology that still intrigued him, he must open up a small-scale unofficial excavation, digging a few test pits with the help of Danish archaeologist Roger Pedersen (1929-). Facing particularly rainy conditions in the middle of winter, in Trench 5 Pedersen uncovered a large yet fragile bone which he subsequently removed within a block of protective silt. At the time, Roberts was away at a conference on Palaeolithic archaeology in TautavelTautavel
Tautavel is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.Home of CERP - The European Centre for Prehistoric Research.Nearby is the 'Caune de l'Arago' a cave in which some of the oldest human remains in Europe have been found....
, France, and so Pedersen contacted Simon Parfitt at his home in London to inform him of his discovery. Suspecting that the bone had most likely belonged to a prehistoric deer, Parfitt did not immediately rush to Boxgrove, only inspecting it upon his next visit to the site; as Roberts and Mike Pitts later related in their account of its discovery:
- It was so fragmentary, so many flakes and splinters, probably crushed by the pressure of the sediments it lay in, that it was totally unrecognisable. All [Simon Parfitt] could say was that it was a large bone. So with little dabs of UHUUHUUHU GmbH & Co. KG is a manufacturer of adhesive products, based in Bühl, Germany. Its company slogan is "Don't say glue, say UHU!". The company logo is yellow with black lettering and in many markets it includes the German phrase: "Der Alleskleber" .- History :In 1905, August Fischer, a dispensing...
, he gently rebuilt Roger's find, until there were essentially just two parts, the two halves of a long bone, a long longbone, broken across the middle. Then Simon drew the two lengths gently together. Bang. That's it: it's human.
Parfitt finally revealed to Roberts that he was "90 per cent certain" that the bone had come from a hominin in the middle of their annual Christmas dinner at the local Anglesey Arms pub. English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
eventually decided to issue a news release of the hominid bone's discovery on 16 May 1994, but stressed to the assembled journalists that they must not publish this discovery until 26 May, because the academic journal Nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
had obtained first rights to the story. Nonetheless, the journalists from The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
disregarded this, publishing a story on the bone in their 17 May edition that proclaimed "English Heritage finds the Oldest Human in Europe - and he is English".
Renewed investigations: 1994-1996
In 2011, Roberts told interviewers from the student-produced archaeological magazine Artifact that Boxgrove was "a fickle mistress indeed" and that whilst he wouldn't change his experience in investigating the site, the excavations "extracted a very heavy price" from him, "a price that I am only just at the point of paying the final instalment on". For this reason he found that he often hummed The SpecialsThe Specials
The Specials are an English 2 Tone ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry, England. Their music combines a "danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude", and had a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups...
' 1979 song "Too Much Too Young
Specials (album)
Specials is the debut album by British ska revival band The Specials.Released in 1979 on Jerry Dammers' 2Tone label, the album is seen by some as the defining moment in the UK ska scene...
" to himself when thinking about the project.
Publication
In 1998, Roberts co-wrote a book about the site with prehistoric archaeologist Michael PittsMichael Pitts
Mike Pitts, who has occasionally written under the name of Michael Pitts, is an English freelance journalist and archaeologist who specialises in the study of British prehistory...
that was entitled Fairweather Eden: Life in Britain half a million years ago as revealed by the excavations at Boxgrove. Published by Arrow Books, Fairweather Eden was designed for a popular audience. One reviewer of the book, A.M. Chadwick, noted that within it:
- Mark Roberts, is given centre stage, but this is at the expense of other participants in the project. Almost prescient powers of perception and forward-thinking are attributed to Mark Roberts, and some of the book's more purple passages describe these… What we are presented is a picture of a lone archaeological warrior battling against the archaeological establishment. Whilst this may have been true of the project's early years, modern multidisciplinary research projects simply do not work like that.
Fairweather Eden was followed by the publication of the full archaeological report on the excavations at Boxgrove, co-written with Simon Parfitt. Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex (1999) was published by English Heritage.
Bow Hill and Blackden excavations: 1997-2011
Blackden in Cheshire was the home of novelist Alan GarnerAlan Garner
With his first book published, Garner abandoned his work as a labourer and gained a job as a freelance television reporter, living a "hand to mouth" lifestyle on a "shoestring" budget...
and his wife Griselda.
Personal life
Roberts is an atheist, and has a longstanding partner named Julie. When asked by interviewers how he would describe himself in three words, he commented that he believed himself to be "fair, caring, competitive", and went on to describe his motto in life as being "Try as hard as you can to be honest with yourself."Roberts' hobbies include fly fishing, shooting, rugby, cricket, cooking and reading novels.
The Palaeolithic archaeologist A.M. Chadwick mentioned that "Roberts is a noted shooting and fishing man, and whilst I was at Boxgrove in 1988, wild game constituted a substantial part of the menu (even including a seagull on one memorable and not too successful occasion!)."
Books and reports
- Michael PittsMike PittsMichael Anthony Pitts is a former professional American football defensive end in the National Football League for the Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles, and the New England Patriots. He played college football at the University of Alabama and was drafted in the first round of the 1983 NFL...
and Mark Roberts. 1998. Fairweather Eden: Life in Britain half a million years ago as revealed by the excavations at Boxgrove. London: Arrow Books. - Mark Roberts and Simon Parfitt. 1999. Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex. English Heritage Archaeological Report.
- Roberts, M.B. and Peyre, L. 2011. Excavation and survey at Goosehill Camp, Chilgrove, West Sussex, UK. Sussex Archaeological Collections.
Articles
- Mark Roberts. October 1996. "Man the Hunter returns at Boxgrove". British Archaeology 18.
- Hillson, S., Parfitt, S.A., Bello, S.M., Roberts, M.B. and Stringer, C.B. In press (2010). Two hominin incisor teeth from the Middle Pleistocene site of Boxgrove, Sussex, England. Journal of Human Evolution. Published on line 9/9/10 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.06.004
- Holmes, J.A., Atkinson, T., Fiona Darbyshire, D.P., Horne, D.J., Joordans, J., Roberts, M.B., Sinka, K.J. and Whittaker, J.E. 2010. Middle Pleistocene climate and hydrological environments at the Boxgrove hominin site (West Sussex, UK) from ostracod records. Quaternary Science Reviews. 29: 1515-1527.
- Pope, M.I., Roberts, M.B., Maxted, A. and Jones, P. In press (Out 2010). The Valdoe: archaeology of a locality within the Boxgrove landscape. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.
- Roberts, M.B. and Pope, M.I. 2009. The archaeological and sedimentary records from Boxgrove and Slindon. In The Quaternary of the Solent Basin and the Sussex Raised Beaches. R.M. Briant, R.T. Hosfield, F.F. Wenban-Smith (eds.).London: Quaternary Research Association. 96-122.
- Roberts, M.B. 2009. Where now for Boxgrove? Archaeology International. 11: 28-33.
- Roberts, M.B. 2009. Goosehill CampGoosehill CampGoosehill Camp is a prehistoric earthwork that dates back to the Iron Age. It consists of two concentric banks and ditches. The inner enclosure has one entrance and surround two levelled hut sites. Goosehill Camp is within the Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve, on the South...
Investigation. Past Matters. 7: 19-23. - Roberts, M.B. and Pope, M.I. submitted (out 2011). Mapping the early Middle Pleistocene deposits of the Slindon Formation, across the coastal plain of West Sussex and eastern Hampshire, UK. London: English Heritage Monograph Series.
- Roberts, M.B., Pope, M.I. and Parfitt, S.A. In prep (Out 2011-12). Boxgrove: An early Middle Pleistocene hominid site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove West Sussex. Excavations 1990-1996. London: English Heritage Monograph Series.
- Pope M.I and Roberts, M.B. 2009. “Clenching Authority”: Joseph Prestwich and the proofs of the Antiquity of Man. In Lithics 30 R.T. Hosfield, F.F. Wenban-Smith and M.I. Pope (eds.). 35-44.
- Stout, D., Apel, J. and Roberts, M.B. (submitted 2010). Late Acheulian technology and cognition at Boxgrove, UK. Journal of Archaeological Science.
- Pope, M.I., Roberts, M.B. 2005. Observations on the relationship between Paleolithic individuals and artefact scatters at the Middle Pleistocene site of Boxgrove, UK. In: C.S. Gamble and M. Porr, (eds.), The individual in the Palaeolithic, Routledge, London, pp. 81-97.