Nick Ashton
Curator of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
collections
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
collections
Department: Prehistory and
Europe
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8093
Email: nashton @ thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
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 www.nhm.ac.uk. 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.
Current British Museum projects
Previous British Museum projects
Barnham Lower Palaeolithic Project
(1989-1994)
Elveden Lower Palaeolithic Project
(1995-1999)
Hoxne Dating and Environmental Project (2000-2003)
External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
Committee member of the Lithic Studies
Society
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