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Selected Works

Richard G Roberts

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

New Excavations Of Middle Stone Age Deposits At Apollo 11 Rockshelter, Namibia: Stratigraphy, Archaeology, Chronology And Past Environments, Ralf Vogelsang, Jurgen Richter, Zenobia Jacobs, Barbara Eichhorn, Veerle Linseele, Richard Roberts Mar 2013

New Excavations Of Middle Stone Age Deposits At Apollo 11 Rockshelter, Namibia: Stratigraphy, Archaeology, Chronology And Past Environments, Ralf Vogelsang, Jurgen Richter, Zenobia Jacobs, Barbara Eichhorn, Veerle Linseele, Richard Roberts

Richard G Roberts

This paper presents new information obtained from a recent excavation and reassessment of the stratigraphy, chronology, archaeological assemblages and environmental context of the Apollo 11 rockshelter, which contains the longest late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sequence in Namibia. The Middle Stone Age (MSA) industries represented at the site include an early MSA, Still Bay, Howieson's Poort and late MSA. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of individual quartz grains yielded numerical ages for the Still Bay and Howieson's Poort, and indicated the presence of a post-Howieson's Poort phase. OSL dating also verified conventional and accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages for a …


Were Environmental Or Demographic Factors The Driving Force Behind Middle Stone Age Innovations In Southern Africa?, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard G. Roberts Mar 2013

Were Environmental Or Demographic Factors The Driving Force Behind Middle Stone Age Innovations In Southern Africa?, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard G. Roberts

Richard G Roberts

Sir—Past human responses to environmental changes have long interested archaeologists. During the last glacial cycle, southern Africa experienced marked climatic fluctuations, as recorded in ice-core records from West and East Antarctica.


Astronomically Calibrated 40ar/39ar Age For The Toba Supereruption And Global Synchronization Of Late Quaternary Records, Michael Storey, Richard Roberts, Mokhtar Saidin Mar 2013

Astronomically Calibrated 40ar/39ar Age For The Toba Supereruption And Global Synchronization Of Late Quaternary Records, Michael Storey, Richard Roberts, Mokhtar Saidin

Richard G Roberts

The Toba supereruption in Sumatra, ∼74 thousand years (ka) ago, was the largest terrestrial volcanic event of the Quaternary. Ash and sulfate aerosols were deposited in both hemispheres, forming a time-marker horizon that can be used to synchronize late Quaternary records globally. A precise numerical age for this event has proved elusive, with dating uncertainties larger than the millennial-scale climate cycles that characterized this period. We report an astronomically calibrated (40)Ar/(39)Ar age of 73.88 ± 0.32 ka (1σ, full external errors) for sanidine crystals extracted from Toba deposits in the Lenggong Valley, Malaysia, 350 km from the eruption source and …


New Ages For Middle And Later Stone Age Deposits At Mumba Rockshelter, Tanzania: Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating Of Quartz And Feldspar Grains, Luke Gliganic, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard Roberts, M Dominguez-Rodrigo, A Mabulla Mar 2013

New Ages For Middle And Later Stone Age Deposits At Mumba Rockshelter, Tanzania: Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating Of Quartz And Feldspar Grains, Luke Gliganic, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard Roberts, M Dominguez-Rodrigo, A Mabulla

Richard G Roberts

The archaeological deposits at Mumba rockshelter, northern Tanzania, have been excavated for more than 70 years, starting with Margit and Ludwig Köhl-Larsen in the 1930s. The assemblages of Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) artefacts collected from this site constitute the type sequences for these cultural phases in East Africa. Despite its archaeological importance, however, the chronology of the site is poorly constrained, despite the application since the 1980s of several dating methods (radiocarbon, uranium-series and amino acid racemisation) to a variety of materials recovered from the deposits. Here, we review these previous chronologies for Mumba and …


Age Constraints On Pleistocene Megafauna At Tight Entrance Cave In Southwestern Australia, Richard Roberts, L K Fifield, R. Grun, Richard Jones, M Bird, Gavin Prideaux, G Gully, Linda Ayliffe, Richard Cresswell Mar 2013

Age Constraints On Pleistocene Megafauna At Tight Entrance Cave In Southwestern Australia, Richard Roberts, L K Fifield, R. Grun, Richard Jones, M Bird, Gavin Prideaux, G Gully, Linda Ayliffe, Richard Cresswell

Richard G Roberts

No abstract provided.


Catalysts For Stone Age Innovations: What Might Have Triggered Two Short-Lived Bursts Of Technological And Behavioral Innovation In Southern Africa During The Middle Stone Age?, Richard Roberts, Zenobia Jacobs Mar 2013

Catalysts For Stone Age Innovations: What Might Have Triggered Two Short-Lived Bursts Of Technological And Behavioral Innovation In Southern Africa During The Middle Stone Age?, Richard Roberts, Zenobia Jacobs

Richard G Roberts

No abstract provided.


A Revised Burial Dose Estimation Procedure For Optical Dating Of Young And Modern-Age Sediments, Richard Roberts, Lee Arnold, R.F. Galbraith, S Delong Mar 2013

A Revised Burial Dose Estimation Procedure For Optical Dating Of Young And Modern-Age Sediments, Richard Roberts, Lee Arnold, R.F. Galbraith, S Delong

Richard G Roberts

No abstract provided.


Single-Grain Osl Dating At La Grotte Des Contrebandiers ('Smugglers' Cave'), Morocco: Improved Age Constraints For The Middle Paleolithic Levels, Richard Roberts, Zenobia Jacobs, Michael Meyer, V Aldeias, M El Hajraoui, H Dibbie Mar 2013

Single-Grain Osl Dating At La Grotte Des Contrebandiers ('Smugglers' Cave'), Morocco: Improved Age Constraints For The Middle Paleolithic Levels, Richard Roberts, Zenobia Jacobs, Michael Meyer, V Aldeias, M El Hajraoui, H Dibbie

Richard G Roberts

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements of individual quartz grains are reported for Middle Paleolithic (MP) or Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits in La Grotte des Contrebandiers, Morocco. Single-grain measurements enable rejection of grains that may lead to under- or over-estimation of age due to malign luminescence properties or remobilisation of grains after burial. We identified the former using a range of experimental procedures and objective rejection criteria. Three post-depositional factors influenced the distribution pattern of equivalent dose (De) values for the remaining single grains: the disintegration of roof spall liberating unbleached, older grains into otherwise well-bleached sediments; the intrusion of …