People - Staff at Archaeology South-East

Matt POPE B.Sc., Ph.d.

• Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Archaeology, UCL.

• Deputy Director: the Boxgrove Project

Research Interests
• Behavioural and ecological controls over assemblage formation and technological organisation in the Lower Palaeolithic.
• Cognitive approaches to the appreciation of symmetry and proportion in the European Palaeolithic.
• The archaeology of Pleistocene raised beach deposits in Southern Britain and West Africa.
• Virtual reality landscape modelling and its applications in archaeology, heritage management and interpretation.

Professional Skills
• Directing Multidisciplinary Prehistoric Archaeological Projects.
• Stone Tool assemblage analysis: technological, taphonomic and behavioural interpretations.
• Geoarchaeological site investigation.
• Trained in the use of a wide-ranging suite of GIS and geological mapping software including ArcView, Rockworks, Surfer, Mapper and Terrastation.
• Creation of 3D landscape visualisation projects (VRML, Terragen, Genesis and Vue D’Esprit)
• Basic operation of bore holing and geological survey equipment.
• Digital photography and image editing in Photoshop. Aerial photography and interpretation.
• HTML and web design using Frontpage and Dreamweaver, Flash applications and web log editing.

Career Summary
2005 - present - Senior Research Fellow (Boxgrove Projects, ASE) & Project Director (Valdoe Assessment Survey).
1999 - 2006 - Research Fellow. Boxgrove Projects, Institute of Archaeology, University College, London.
1995 - 1999 - Research Assistant. Boxgrove Projects. Institute of Archaeology, University College, London.
1988 - 1995 - Field Archaeologist. Wessex, Oxford and Sussex (FAU) Units.

Qualifications
• 2003 - PhD. - Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton.
• 1993 - BSc. - Archaeology. Department of Archaeology, University of Wales, Cardiff.



Key Projects
The Boxgrove Project: (Director: Mark Roberts) Link
The Valdoe Assessment Survey (ALSF funded research project) Link
The Raised Beach Mapping Project (Director: Mark Roberts) Link
‘Beedings’ Late Pleistocene Camp
The geoarchaeology of Peacehaven, the Ouse Valley and environs.



Recent Publications
Pope, M.I. 1996. Boxgrove: A field guide to the excavations. Boxgrove Project Publications.

Roberts, M.B., Parfitt, S.A., Pope, M.I. and Wenban Smith, F.F. 1997. Boxgrove, West Sussex: Rescue excavations of a Lower Palaeolithic landsurface (Boxgrove Project B 1989-1991). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 63: 303-358

Pope M.I. 1999. Managing the Early Prehistoric Heritage of Brighton and Hove. Consultation document for Brighton and Hove City Council.

Pope M.I. 2000. Lower Palaeolithic Surface finds from the northern scarp of the Downs at Kithurst Hill, West Sussex. Sussex Archaeological Collections 138.

Pope, M.I. 2001. New investigations at Slindon Bottom Palaeolithic Site, West Sussex: an interim report. Lithics. 22: 3-10.

Roberts, M.B. and Pope, M.I. 2001. Mapping the Boxgrove Middle Pleistocene deposits across the coastal plain of West Sussex and Eastern Hampshire. English Heritage.

Pope, M.I. 2002. The significance of biface-rich assemblages: An examination of the behavioural controls on lithic assemblage formation in the Lower Palaeolithic. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. University of Southampton.

Pope, M.I. 2003. The Earliest occupation of Sussex: Recent research and future objectives. In Rudling, D. (ed) The archaeology of Sussex to A.D. 2000. Heritage Marketing and Publication Ltd. 17-29.

Pope, M.I. 2004. Behavioural implications of biface discard: assemblage variability and land-use at the Middle Pleistocene site of Boxgrove. In Lithics In Action. Lithic Studies Society Occasional Paper 24. Oxbow Books, Oxford.

Pope, M.I. 2004. The Raised Beach Mapping Project. Archaeology International 6

Pope, M.I 2005. Observations on the relationship between Palaeolithic individuals and artefact scatters at the Middle Pleistocene site of Boxgrove, UK. In Gamble C.S. and Porr, M. The Individual In the Palaeolithic. Routledge.

Pope, M.I. In Press. Before Language: Biface form and structured behaviour in the Acheuleean. Lithics.

Roberts, M.B. and Pope, M.I. In press. The Raised Beach Mapping Project. English heritage Monograph.