Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
PUBLISHED WORK
BOOKS
2019
Roberts, P. Tropical Forests in Prehistory, History, and Modernity.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
2019
Roberts, P., Amano, N.Plastic pioneers: Hominin biogeography east of the Movius Line during the Pleistocene. Archaeological Research in Asia https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2019.01.003.
2019
Wedage, O., Amano, N., Langley, M.C., Douka, K., Blinkhorn, J., Crowther, A., Deraniyagala, S., Kourampas, N., Simpson, I., Perera, N., Picin, A., Boivin, N., Petraglia, M., Roberts, P. Specialized rainforest hunting by Homo sapiens 45,000 years ago. Nature Communications 10: 739 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08623-1.
2019
Hausmann, N., Prendergast, A.L., Lemonis, A., Zech, J., Roberts, P., Siozos, P., Anglos, D. Mg/Ca ratios as climate proxy in seasonal records of Mediterranean limpets. Scientific Reports 9: 3698 DOI: doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39959-9
2019
Li, F., Vanwezer, N., Boivin, N., Gao, X., Ott, F., Petraglia, M., Roberts, P. Heading north: Late Pleistocene environments and human dispersals in central and eastern Asia. PLoS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216433.
2019
Éadaoin H., Nayak, A., Patterson, N., Joglekar, P., Mushrif-Tripathy, V., Mallick, S., Rohland, N., Sedig, J., Adamski, N., Bernardos, R., Broomandkhoshbacht, N., Culleton, B.J., Ferry, M., Harper, T.K., Michel, M., Oppenheimer, J., Stewardson, K., Zhang, Z., Harashawaradhana, Singh Bartwal, M., Kumar, S., Diyundi, S.C., Roberts, P.,Boivin, N., Kennett, D.J., Thangaraj, K., Reich, D., Rai, N. Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India. Nature Communications 10(1) 2019: 3670. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9
2019
García-Escárzaga, A., Gutiérrez-Zugasti, I., Cobo, A., Cuenca-Solana, D., Martin-Chivelet, J., Roberts, P.,González-Morales, M. R. Stable oxygen isotope analysis of Phorcus lineatus (da Costa, 1778) as a proxy for foraging seasonality during the Mesolithic in northern Iberia. Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00880-x.
2019
Stephens, L., Fuller, D., Boivin N., Rick, T., Gauthier, N., Kay, A., Marwick, B., Geralda, C., Armstrong, D., Barton, C.M., Denham, T., Douglass, K., Driver, J., Janze, L., Roberts, P.,Rogers, J.D., Thakar, H., Altaweel, M., Johnson, A.L., Vattuone, M.M.S., Aldenderfer, M., Archila, S., Artioli, G., Bale, M.T., Beach, T., Borrell, F., Braje, T., Buckland, P.I., Guadalupe, N., Cano, J., Capriles, J.M., Castillo, A.D., Çilingiroğlu, Ç., Clearly, M.N., Conolly, J., Coutros, P.R., Covey, R.A., Cremaschi, M., Crowther, A., Der, L., diLernia, S., Doershuk, J.F., Doolittle, W.E., Edwards, K.J., Erlandson, J.M., Evans, D., Fairbairn, A., Faulkner, P., Feinman, G., Fernandes, R., Fitzpatrick, S.M., Fyfe, R., Garcea, E., Goldstein, S., Goodman, R.C., Guedes, J.D., Herrmann, J., Hiscock, P., Hommel, P., Ann Horsburgh, K., Hritz, C., Ives, J.W., Junno, A., Kahn, J.G., Kaufman, B., Kearns, C., Kidder, T.R., Lanoë, F., Lawrence, D., Lee, G-A., Levin, M.J., Lindskoug, H.B., López-Sáez, J.A., Macrae, S., Marchant, R., Marston, J.M., McClure, S., McCoy, M.D., Ventresca Miller, A., Morrison, M., Matizeviciute, G.M., Müller, J., Nayak, A., Noerwidi, S., Peres, T.M., Peterson, C.E., Proctor, L., Randall, A.R., Renette, S., Schug, G.R., Ryzewksi, K., Saini, R., Scheinsohn, V., Schmidt, P., Sebillaud, P., Seitsonen, O., Simpson, I.A., Soltysiak, A., Speakman, R.J., Spengler, R.N., Steffen, M.L., Storozum, M.J., Strickland, K.M., Thompson, J., Thurston, T.L., Ulm, S., Ustunkaya, M.C., Welker, M.H., West, C., Williams, P.R., Wright, D.K., Wright, N., Zahir, M., Zerboni, A., Beaudoin, E., Garcia, S.M., Powell, J., Thornton, A., Kaplan, J.O., Gaillard, M-J., Klein Goldewijk, K., Ellis, E. 2019. Archaeological assessment reveals Earth’s early transformation through land use. Science 365: 897-902.
2018
Roberts, P., Stewart, M., Alagaili, A.N., Breeze, P., Candy, I., Drake, N., Groucutt, H.S., Scerri, E.M.L., Lee-Thorp, J., Louys, J., Zalmout, I.S., Al-Mufarreh, Y.S.A., Zech, J., Alsharekh, A.M., al Omari, A., Boivin, N., Petraglia, M. Fossil herbivore stable isotopes reveal Middle Pleistocene hominin palaeoenvironment in ‘Green Arabia’. Nature Ecology and Evolution DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0698-9.
2018
Roberts, P., Stewart, B. Defining the ‘generalist-specialist’ niche for PleistoceneHomo sapiens. Nature Human Behaviour DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0394-4.
2018
Roberts, P., Boivin, N., Kaplan, J. Finding the anthropocene in tropical forests. Anthropocene 23: 5-16.
2018
Ventresca Miller, A., Fernandes, R., Janzen, A., Nayak, A., Swift, J., Zech, J., Boivin, N., Roberts, P. 2018. Sampling and pretreatment of tooth enamel carbonate for stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis. Journal of Visual Experiments 138: e58002, DOI: 10.3791/58002.
2018
Roberts, P., Gillingwater, T., Lahr, M., Lee-Thorp, J., MacCallum, M., Petraglia, M., Wedage, O., Heenbanda, U., Wanniya-laeto, U. Historical tropical forest reliance amongst the Wanniyalaeto (Vedda) of Sri Lanka: an isotopic perspective. Human Ecology DOI: 10.1007/s10745-018-9997-7.
2018
Swift, J., Roberts P., Boivin, N., Kirch, P. Restructuring of nutrient flows in island ecoystems following human colonization evidenced by isotopic analysis of commensal rats. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America DOI:10.1073/pnas.1805787115.
2018
Shipton, C., Roberts, P., Armitage, S., Blinkhorn, J., Crowther, A., Curtis, R., d’Errico, F., Douka, K., Faulkner, P.,Groucutt, H.S., Helm, R., Herries, A.I.R., Kourampas, N., Lee-Thorp, J., Marchant, R., Marti, A.P., Mbita, C., Mercader, J., Prendergast, M., Rowson, B., Tengeza, A., Tibesasa, R., White, T.S., Petraglia, M.D., Boivin, N. A 78,000-year-old record of tropical adaptation and complex human behaviour in coastal East Africa. Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04057-3.
2018
Roberts, P., Fernandes, R., Craig, O.E., Larsen, T., Lucquin, A., Swift, J., Zech, J. Calling all archaeologists: guidelines for terminology. Data handling, reporting, and reviewing stable isotope applications in archaeology. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.8044..
2018
Posth, C., Nagele, K., Colleran, H., Valentin, F., Bedford, S., Kami, K., Shing, R., Buckley, H., Kinaston, R., Walworth, M., Clark, G., Reepmeyer, C., Flexner, J., Maric, T., Moser, J., Gresky, J., Kiko, L., Robson, K., Auckland, K., Oppenheimer, S., Hill, A., Mentzer, A., Zech, J., Petchey, F., Roberts, P., Jeong, C., Gray, R., Krause, J., Powell. A. Language continuity despite population replacement in Remote Oceania. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2: 731-740.
2017
Roberts, P., Hunt, C., Arroyo-Kalin, M., Evans, D., Boivin, N. The deep human prehistory of global tropical forests and its relevance for modern conservation. Nature Plants 3: 17093.
2017
Roberts, P., Blinkhorn, J., Petraglia, M. A transect of environmental variability across South Asia and its influence on Late Pleistocene human innovation and occupation. Journal of Quaternary Science DOI:10.1002/jqs.2975.
2017
Roberts, P. Book review of ‘Journeys into the Rainforest: archaeology of culture change and continuity on the Evelyn Tableland, North Queensland’ by Åsa Ferrier. Archaeology in Oceania DOI: 10.1002/arco.5133.
2017
Roberts, P. Forests of plenty: Ethnographic and archaeological rainforests as hotspots of human activity. Quaternary International DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.03.041.
2017
Roberts, P., Blumenthal, S.A., Dittus, W., Wedage, O., Lee-Thorp, J.A. Stable carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen isotope analysis of plants from a South Asian tropical forest: implications for primatology. American Journal of Primatology DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22656.
2017
Roberts, P., Perera, N., Wedage, O., Deraniyagala, S.U., Perera, J., Eregama, S., Gledhill, A., Petraglia, M., Lee-Thorp, J. Fruits of the forest: human stable isotope ecology and rainforest adaptations in Late Pleistocene and Holocene (~36 to 3 ka) Sri Lanka. Journal of Human Evolution 106: 102-118.
2017
Roberts, P., Gaffney, D., Lee-Thorp, J., Summerhayes, G. Persistent tropical foraging in the Highlands of Terminal Pleistocene-Holocene New Guinea. Nature Ecology and Evolution 0044.DOI:10.1038/s41559-016-0044.
2016
Roberts, P., Boivin, N., Lee-Thorp, J., Petraglia, M., Stock, J. Tropical forests and the genus Homo. Evolutionary Anthropology 25: 306-317.
2016
Loftus, E., Roberts, P., Lee-Thorp, J.A. An isotopic generation: four decades of stable isotope analysis in African archaeology. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 51: 88-114.
2016
Roberts, P., Henshilwood, C.S., van Niekerk, K.L., Keene, P., Gledhill, A., Reynard, J., Badenhorst, S., Lee-Thorp, J. Climate, environment and early human innovation: stable isotope and faunal proxy evidence from archaeological sites (98-59ka) in the southern Cape, South Africa. PLOS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157408.
2015
Roberts, P. ‘We have never been behaviourally modern’: the implications of Material Engagement Theory and metaplasticity for understanding the Late Pleistocene record of human behaviour. Quaternary International DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.03.011.
2015
Roberts, P.,Petraglia, M.D. Pleistocene rainforests: barriers or attractive environments for early human foragers? World Archaeology DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2015.1073119.
2015
Roberts, P., Perera, N., Wedage, O., Deraniyagala, S.U., Perera, J., Eregama, S., Gledhill, A., Petraglia, M., Lee-Thorp, J. Direct evidence for human rainforest resource reliance in Late Pleistocene Sri Lanka. Science 347: 1246-1249.
2015
Roberts, P., Boivin, N., Petraglia, M. The Sri Lankan ‘Microlithic’ Tradition c. 38,000 to 3,000 years ago: tropical technologies and adaptations of Homo sapiensat the southern Edge of Asia. Journal of World Prehistory 28: 69-112.
2015
Roberts, P., Boivin, N., Petraglia, M., Masser, P., Meece, S., Weisskopf, A., Silva, F., Korisettar, R., Fuller, D. Q. Local diversity in settlement, demography and subsistence across the southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition: site growth and abandonment at Sanganakallu-Kupgal. Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Science DOI: 10.1007/s12520-015-0240-9.
2014
Roberts, P., Delson, E., Miracle, P., Ditchfield, P., Roberts, R.G., Jacobs, Z., Blinkhorn, J., Ciochon, R.L., Fleagle, J.G., Frost, S.R., Gilbert, C.C., Gunnell, G.F., Harrison, T., Korisettar, R., Petraglia, M.D. Continuity of mammalian fauna over the last 200,000 y in the Indian subcontinent. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111(16): 5848-5853.
2013
Roberts, P., Lee-Thorp, J.A., Mitchell, P.J., Arthur C. Stable carbon isotopic evidence for climate change across the late Pleistocene to early Holocene from Lesotho, southern Africa. Journal of Quaternary Science 28: 360-369.
2012
Roberts, P., Weston, S., Wild, B., Boston, C., Ditchfield, P., Shortland, A.J., Pollard, M. The men of Nelson’s Navy: A comparative stable isotope dietary study of late 18thcentury and early 19th century servicemen from Royal Naval Hospital burial grounds at Plymouth and Gosport, England. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 148: 1-10.
BOOK CHAPTERS
2019
Roberts, P., Krigbaum, J.A. Lee-Thorp. Hunting and gathering in prehistoric rainforests: insights from stable isotope analysis. In A. Lemke (ed.). Foraging in the Past: Archaeological Studies of Hunter-gatherer Diversity. Colorado: Colorado University Press. Pp. 119-158.
2018
Roberts, P., Hendy, J., Boivin, N. Scientific practice. In The Society for Archaeological Science Encyclopaedia of Archaeological Sciences. The Society for Archaeological Science. United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.
2018
Roberts, P. Late Pleistocene tropical rainforest forager sustainability and resilience. In N. Sanz (ed.). Exploring Frameworks for Tropical Forest Conservation: Managing Production and Consumption for Sustainability. Mexico City:UNESCO. Pp. 116-135.
2016
Roberts, P. Early human adaptation to Late Pleistocene-Holocene rainforests in South Asia. In N. Sanz (ed.). Exploring Frameworks for Tropical Forest Conservation: Managing Production and Consumption for Sustainability. Mexico City: UNESCO. Pp. 28-44.
2016
Perera, N., Roberts, P., Petraglia, M. Bone Technology in South Asia from Late Pleistocene rockshelter deposits in Sri Lanka. In M.C. Langley (ed.). Osseous Projectile Weaponry: Towards an Understanding of Pleistocene Cultural Variability. VERT Series. New York: Springer-Verlag. Pp. 173-188.