Nick Ashton

Curator of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic collections
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic collections Department:
Prehistory and Europe

 

Nick Ashton has been a curator at the British Museum for over twenty years, specializing in Lower and Middle Palaeolithic archaeology and helps curate the extensive stone tool collections from these periods. He has directed and published major excavation projects at the Lower Palaeolithic sites of High Lodge, Barnham, Elveden and Hoxne (all Suffolk).

He is currently involved in the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain Project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. This is examining the human presence and habitat preferences of early humans in Britain over the last 700,000 years. His particular interests in the project are: the earliest occupation of Britain, currently being investigated through fieldwork at Happisburgh (Suffolk); and the investigation of when Britain first became an island.

Contact

nashton@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7323 8093

Current projects

Previous projects

  • Barnham Lower Palaeolithic Project (1989-1994)

  • Elveden Lower Palaeolithic Project (1995-1999)

  • Hoxne Dating and Environmental Project (2000-2003)

External fellowships/ honorary positions

  • Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries

  • Committee member of the Lithic Studies Society

Recent publications

N. M. Ashton, S. G. Lewis and S. A. Parfitt (eds.), Excavations at Barnham 1989-94 (London, British Museum Occasional Paper 125, 1998)

N. M. Ashton. and S. G. Lewis, 'Deserted Britain: declining populations in the British late Middle Pleistocene', Antiquity, 76 (2002) pp. 388-96

N. M. Ashton, S. G. Lewis, S. A. Parfitt, I. Candy, D. Keen, R. Kemp, K. Penkman, G. Thomas, J. Whittaker, and M.White, 'Excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, UK', Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 71 (2005) pp. 1-61

N. M. Ashton, S. G. Lewis, S. A. Parfitt and M. White, 'Riparian landscapes and human habitat preferences during the Hoxnian (MIS 11) Interglacial', Journal of Quaternary Science, 21(5) (2006), pp. 497-505

White, M.J and N. M. Ashton, 'Lower Palaeolithic core technology and the origins of the Levallois method in NW Europe', Current Anthropology, 44 (2003), pp.598-609

 
Web Analytics