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Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Richard G Roberts

Selected Works

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Articles 1 - 12 of 12

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.


Development Of The Sar Tt-Osl Procedure For Dating Middle Pleistocene Dune And Shallow Marine Deposits Along The Southern Cape Coast Of South Africa, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard Roberts, Terry Lachlan, Panagiotis Karkanas, Curtis Marean, David Roberts Mar 2013

Development Of The Sar Tt-Osl Procedure For Dating Middle Pleistocene Dune And Shallow Marine Deposits Along The Southern Cape Coast Of South Africa, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard Roberts, Terry Lachlan, Panagiotis Karkanas, Curtis Marean, David Roberts

Richard G Roberts

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating is now commonly used to estimate the depositional age of Quaternary landforms along the southern Cape coast of South Africa. Due to the early onset of dose saturation in the quartz-rich sediments from this region, determining the age of deposits much older than the last three glacio-eustatic sea-level high stands has been a challenge. In this study, we explored the feasibility of using the thermally-transferred OSL (TT-OSL) dating method to obtain ages for aeolian and shallow marine deposits at three different localities that hold promise to further illuminate the long and complex Late Quaternary sea-level …


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 …


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 Southern Indian Middle Palaeolithic Occupation Surface Sealed By The 74 Ka Toba Eruption: Further Evidence From Jwalapuram Locality 22, Richard Roberts, Allan Chivas, Christopher Clarkson, Ravi Korisettar, Nicole Boivin, Michael Petraglia, Peter Ditchfield, Michael Haslam, Janardhana Bora, Sanjay Eksambekar, Victoria Smith, Anna Oh, Clair Harris Mar 2013

A Southern Indian Middle Palaeolithic Occupation Surface Sealed By The 74 Ka Toba Eruption: Further Evidence From Jwalapuram Locality 22, Richard Roberts, Allan Chivas, Christopher Clarkson, Ravi Korisettar, Nicole Boivin, Michael Petraglia, Peter Ditchfield, Michael Haslam, Janardhana Bora, Sanjay Eksambekar, Victoria Smith, Anna Oh, Clair Harris

Richard G Roberts

No abstract provided.


Single-Grain Osl Chronologies For Middle Palaeolithic Deposits At El Mnasra And El Harhoura 2, Morocco: Implications For Late Pleistocene Human-Environment Interactions Along The Atlantic Coast Of Northwest Africa, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard Roberts, Roland Nespoulet, M El Hajraoui, Andre Debenath Mar 2013

Single-Grain Osl Chronologies For Middle Palaeolithic Deposits At El Mnasra And El Harhoura 2, Morocco: Implications For Late Pleistocene Human-Environment Interactions Along The Atlantic Coast Of Northwest Africa, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard Roberts, Roland Nespoulet, M El Hajraoui, Andre Debenath

Richard G Roberts

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements were made on individual, sand-sized grains of quartz from Middle Palaeolithic deposits at two cave sites (El Harhoura 2 and El Mnasra) on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. We were able to calculate OSL ages for 32 of the 33 samples collected from the Middle Palaeolithic deposits, including the earliest and latest Aterian levels at both sites. These ages reveal periods of occupation between about 110 and 95 ka (thousands of years ago), and at ~75 ka. A late Middle Palaeolithic occupation of El Harhoura 2 is also recorded at ~55 ka. Our single-grain OSL …


Middle Paleolithic Occupation On A Marine Isotope Stage 5 Lakeshore In The Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia, Michael Petraglia, Abdullah Alsharekh, Remy Crassard, Nick Drake, Huw Groucutt, Adrian Parker, Richard Roberts Mar 2013

Middle Paleolithic Occupation On A Marine Isotope Stage 5 Lakeshore In The Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia, Michael Petraglia, Abdullah Alsharekh, Remy Crassard, Nick Drake, Huw Groucutt, Adrian Parker, Richard Roberts

Richard G Roberts

No abstract provided.


Hominin Dispersal Into The Nefud Desert And Middle Palaeolithic Settlement Along The Jubbah Palaeolake, Northern Arabia, M Petraglia, Abdullah M. Alsharekh, P Breeze, Christopher Clarkson, Remy Crassard, Nick A. Drake, Huw Groucutt, R Jennings, Adrian Parker, A Parton, Richard Roberts, C Shipton, Carney Matheson, A Al-Omari, M Veall Mar 2013

Hominin Dispersal Into The Nefud Desert And Middle Palaeolithic Settlement Along The Jubbah Palaeolake, Northern Arabia, M Petraglia, Abdullah M. Alsharekh, P Breeze, Christopher Clarkson, Remy Crassard, Nick A. Drake, Huw Groucutt, R Jennings, Adrian Parker, A Parton, Richard Roberts, C Shipton, Carney Matheson, A Al-Omari, M Veall

Richard G Roberts

The Arabian Peninsula is a key region for understanding hominin dispersals and the effect of climate change on prehistoric demography, although little information on these topics is presently available owing to the poor preservation of archaeological sites in this desert environment. Here, we describe the discovery of three stratified and buried archaeological sites in the Nefud Desert, which includes the oldest dated occupation for the region. The stone tool assemblages are identified as a Middle Palaeolithic industry that includes Levallois manufacturing methods and the production of tools on flakes. Hominin occupations correspond with humid periods, particularly Marine Isotope Stages 7 …


Middle Paleolithic Assemblages From The Indian Subcontinent, Before And After The Toba Super-Eruption, Michael Petraglia, Ravi Korisettar, Nicole Boivin, Christopher Clarkson, Peter Ditchfield, Sacha Jones, Jinu Koshy, Marta Lahr, Clive Oppenheimer, David Pyle, Richard Roberts, Jean-Luc Schwenninger, Lee Arnold, Kevin White Mar 2013

Middle Paleolithic Assemblages From The Indian Subcontinent, Before And After The Toba Super-Eruption, Michael Petraglia, Ravi Korisettar, Nicole Boivin, Christopher Clarkson, Peter Ditchfield, Sacha Jones, Jinu Koshy, Marta Lahr, Clive Oppenheimer, David Pyle, Richard Roberts, Jean-Luc Schwenninger, Lee Arnold, Kevin White

Richard G Roberts

The Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT) eruption, which occurred in Indonesia 74,000 years ago, is one of Earth's largest known volcanic events. The effect of the YTT eruption on existing populations of humans, and accordingly on the course of human evolution, is debated. Here we associate the YTT with archaeological assemblages at Jwalapuram, in the Jurreru River valley of southern India. Broad continuity of Middle Paleolithic technology across the YTT event suggests that hominins persisted regionally across this major eruptive event.


An Arid-Adapted Middle Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna From South-Central Australia, Richard Roberts, Lee Arnold, John Hellstrom, Gavin Prideaux, Mark Hutchinson, Linda Ayliffe, Walter Boles, Matthew Cupper, Paul Devine, Brad Pillans, John Long Mar 2013

An Arid-Adapted Middle Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna From South-Central Australia, Richard Roberts, Lee Arnold, John Hellstrom, Gavin Prideaux, Mark Hutchinson, Linda Ayliffe, Walter Boles, Matthew Cupper, Paul Devine, Brad Pillans, John Long

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 …