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Mark Brian Roberts (born 20 May 1961) 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.〔Pitts and Roberts 1998. p. opening sleeve.〕〔"Boxgrove Staff". Boxgrove Project site. Available at http://matt.pope.users.btopenworld.com/boxgrove/staff.htm〕 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 Mike 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. ==Early life: 1961–1982== Roberts was born in Chichester, 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.〔Pitts and Roberts 1998. p. 71.〕 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 West Sussex chalk downs overlooking Newhaven,〔Pitts and Roberts 1998. p. 72.〕 a site that he would later tell an interviewer has remained one of his favourites for the rest of his life.〔Kontonicolas, Ali and Roberts 2011. p. 12.〕 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, whom 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.〔Pitts and Roberts 1998. pp. 72–73.〕 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.〔Kontonicolas, Ali and Roberts 2011. p. 13.〕 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.〔Pitts and Roberts 1998. p. 73.〕 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.〔Pitts and Roberts 1998. pp. 73–75.〕 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. 〔Pitts and Roberts 1998. pp. 75–76.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mark Roberts (archaeologist)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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