Phone:

(023) 8059 6864

Email:

F.Wenban-Smith@soton.ac.uk

Dr Francis Wenban-Smith PhD, MA, BA

Principal Research Fellow, Director of Centre for Applied Human Origins Research (CAHOR)

Dr Francis Wenban-Smith is a Principal Research Fellow in Archaeology at the University of Southampton.

It all started for me on a peat bog in Yorkshire, where an interest in lithic technology was stimulated in my teens by fieldwork at the Mesolithic site of Seamer Carr. This was followed by a BA in general archaeology at the London Institute of Archaeology, where I became enthused by human origins research through involvement with Boxgrove Lower Palaeolithic site. I then studied for an MA in Lithic Analysis and Microwear at University College London before carrying out a PhD at the University of Southampton, completing in 1996. My PhD was based on the classic British Levalloisian site of Baker's Hole, although this was used as a case-study for an organisational approach to lithic analysis, rather than merely being about "the Levalloisian". Previous employment includes many years at Boxgrove, culminating as Senior Supervisor and Lithic Analyst on the Hominid Site project in the mid-1990s. Fortuitously for me, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link - now rebranded as HS1 - was put straight through my PhD site of Baker's Hole, leading to my becoming heavily involved in the pre-construction route-planning and archaeological work as a Palaeolithic specialist.

Since the late 1990s, I have been carrying out a combination of commercial contract and research work as part of the University of Southampton Archaeology Department, through the contracting centre CAHOR, Centre for Applied Human Origins Research. My work involves developing/leading major research projects and carrying out commercial archaeological investigations in advance of development, as a specialist in Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods, Quaternary geoarchaeology and lithic analysis. Commercial projects have ranged across southern England, including much work in relation to HS1, including discovery, excavation and publication of The Ebbsfleet Elephant, the undisturbed remains of a 400,000 year-old early hominin elephant butchery site. Following from HS1, there is still much archaeological work to be done in the surrounding area, most notably in conjunction with the recently proposed Ebbsfleet garden city. Other commercial projects have included fieldwork in advance of improvements to the M25, leading to discovery of the earliest Neanderthal occupation of Britain and investigations of Bronze Age activity at the site of the new 2nd runway for Manchester airport.

Various research projects have been carried out alongside my commercial contracting work. As well as the current projects listed separately - see tab link above - previous projects have included: fieldwork at Red Barns handaxe site near Portsmouth and the Priory Bay cliff-top site on the Isle of Wight; the Medway Valley Palaeolithic Project. 

], which involved a regional survey of the Lower/Middle Palaeolithic occupation of the Medway basin, including fieldwork at the late Lower Palaeolithic site of Cuxton; and the Stopes Palaeolithic Project, which involved investigating the archive and lithic collection of Henry Stopes, an active antiquarian in the late 19th century, and a vigorous proponent of "Tertiary Man" in the UK. I am closely involved with a number of academic societies, in particular I am a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and an active member of the Lithic Studies Society where I was Chair between 2004 and 2009.