Professor Mark Robinson

Professor Robinson retired in December 2019 after being based in the Museum from 1973, having spent the last 27 years on the teaching staff of the School of Archaeology. His recent research covers three areas of environmental archaeology: Roman diet, Holocene changes in the British insect fauna in relation to past human activity, and the environment of the Bay of Naples area of Italy.  A fourth area of research was the genetic make-up of the current British population in relation to archaeological and historical evidence for past population movements, working with geneticists and medical statisticians of the People of the British Isles project.  An earlier research theme, the environmental archaeology of flooding and alluviation in the Thames Valley, has again become topical with current concerns about climate change. He continues to take undergraduates to excavate at Pompeii on a fieldwork project with the Free University of Berlin.