Patrick Roberts received a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology, an MSc in Archaeological Science, and DPhil in Archaeological Science at the University of Oxford. Between 2016 and 2022 he was Group Leader and then W2 Scientist of the Department of Archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Since 2022 he has been the W2 Independent Research Group Leader of the isoTROPIC Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and Lead Scientist of the Department of Archaeology. He also holds an Honorary Professorship at the Australian National University and Visiting Professorship at the University of the Philippines.
As Director of the Department of Coevolution of Land Use and Urbanisation, Patrick is committed to pioneering and applying multidisciplinary approaches to studying long-term relationships of our species and the Earth system. In particular, he focuses on developing new methodologies and datasets which can be used to study how urban dynamics, trajectories, and networks (and their alternatives) have interacted with land use changes and, in turn, different parts of the Earth system across space and time. This includes combining state-of-the-art approaches in field- and lab-based archaeological science, remote sensing, palaeoecology, history, computational archaeology, and land use modelling.
Patrick is committed to ensuring that his research makes contributions to local stakeholders in the regions where he works and engages closely with Indigenous communities, being awarded the Humanitarian Award of the Veddah Indigenous Community of Sri Lanka in 2023. He also seeks to engage with policy makers and is a member of the iHOPE network and has served onUNESCO panels relating to natural and cultural heritage designations. As part of his aims to make his work accessible to the public, Patrick also wrote the popular book ‘Jungle: How Tropical Forests Shaped the World and Us’ published by Penguin/Viking Random House in 2021.
Amano, N.; Faulkner, P.; Wedage, O.; Clarkson, C.; Amila, D.; del Val, M.; Jurkenas, D.; Kapukotuwa, A.; López, G. I.; Pares, J.et al.; Pathmalal, M. M.; Smith, T.; Wright, M.; Roberts, P.; Petraglia, M.; Boivin, N.: Early Sri Lankan coastal site tracks technological change and estuarine resource exploitation over the last ca. 25,000 years. Scientific Reports 14 (1), 26693 (2024)
Findley, D. M.; Roberts, P.: Cultivating Wheat in the Philippines, ca. 1600–1800 CE: why a Grain Was Not Adopted by Local Populations. International journal of historical archaeology, s10761-024-00753-7 (2024)
Pérez-Ramallo, P.; Rodríguez-Varela, R.; Staniewska, A.; Ilgner, J.; Krzewińska, M.; Chivall, D.; Higham, T.; Götherström, A.; Roberts, P.: Unveiling Bishop Teodomiro of Iria Flavia?: an attempt to identify the discoverer of St James's tomb through osteological and biomolecular analyses (Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain). Antiquity, 91 (2024)
Sekhar Chakraborty, K.; Bestel, S.; Lucas, M.; Roberts, P.; Shirvalkar, P.; Rawat, Y.; Larsen, T.; Miller, H. M.-L.: To waste or not to waste: a multi-proxy analysis of human-waste interaction and rural waste management in Indus Era Gujarat. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 16, 141 (2024)
Gur-Arieh, S.; Eisenmann, S.; Henry, A. G.; Lucas, M.; Lenz, D.; Paxinos, P.; Weber, H.; Morandi, L. F.; Stone, J. R.; Schultz, M.et al.; Roberts, P.; Stockhammer, P. W.: Reconstructing dietary practices at Tell Kamid el-Loz (Lebanon) during the Bronze and Iron Age III / Persian to Hellenistic periods using plant micro-remains from dental calculus and stable isotope analysis of bone collagen. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 16 (8), 127 (2024)
Roberts, P.: Die Wurzeln des Menschen: wie der Dschungel die Erde formte, das menschliche Leben hervorbrachte und unsere Zukunft bestimmt. dtv Verlagsgesellschaft, München (2021), 495 pp.
van Dalen, B.; Roberts, P.: Prehistoric human development and sustainability. In: The Palgrave handbook of global sustainability, 1st edition Ed., pp. 2195 - 2234 (Ed. Brinkmann, R.). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham (2023)
Patalano, R.; Roberts, P.: Climate Proxies. In: The encyclopedia of ancient history: Asia and Africa, eahaa00609 (Eds. Potts, D. T.; Harkness, E.; Neelis, J.; McIntosh, R.) (2021)
Roberts, P.: Foreword [to Bioarchaeology and Dietary Reconstruction across Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Tuscany, Central Italy / Giulia Riccomi]. In: Bioarchaeology and Dietary Reconstruction across Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Tuscany, Central Italy, pp. x - xi. Archaeopress, Summerville (2021)
Roberts, P.; Krigbaum, J.; Lee-Thorp, J.: Hunting and gathering in prehistoric rainforests: insights from stable isotope analysis. In: Foraging in the past: archaeological studies of Hunter-Gatherer Diversity, pp. 119 - 158 (Ed. Lemke, A. K.). University Press of Colarado, Louisville (2019)
Perera, N.; Roberts, P.; Petraglia, M. D.: Bone Technology from Late Pleistocene Caves and Rockshelters of Sri Lanka. In: Osseous Projectile Weaponry, pp. 173 - 188 (Ed. Langley, M. C.). Springer (2016)
