Matthew Pope

Palaeo London: Approaches to the Ice Age Archaeology of the City

The lecture will be on February 24 2023 at 7.00pm
in the Fenner Brockway Room, Conway Hall
25 Red Lion Square, WC1R 4RL.

Matthew is Principal Research Fellow in Palaeolithic Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology. The focus of his research is on the archaeology of human origins, especially Neanderthal tool use and hunting. What excites him about the subject is the possibility of understanding human behaviour in the deep evolutionary past and what it can teach us about how we live our lives today. His research interests focus on the interpretation of archaeological records relating to human evolution. In particular, he is interested in early human adaptations to north European environments and responses to long and short-term climate change.

Matthew has provided the following abstract of his lecture.

The landscape now covered by Greater London is one which preserves a rich record of our Ice Age past. Spanning in excess of 500,000 years, this record includes a large area of Ice Age geology, environmental records of now lost landscapes as well as stone artefacts and the bones of now extinct mammalian fauna. In this lecture, we will explore this record through key sites and the history of their discovery. From the first recorded discovery of a Palaeolithic tool through to the professional commercial excavations taking place in the city in recent years, we’ll consider how the London landscape was shaped by ice and water, and the early human populations who adapted, or not, to the dramatic cycles of climate change evidenced in the gravels and clays

As usual, this lecture is free of charge for EMAS members, while non-members are asked to pay a fee of £3 in cash at the lecture.

We would be grateful if you could send an email to secretary@emasarchaeology.org to let us know that you are planning to attend. We hope to see you there.