Clive Stephen Gamble, (born 1951) is a British

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

. He has been described as the "UK’s foremost archaeologist investigating our earliest ancestors."UK Government announcement of appointment
/ref>

Early life and education

Gamble was born in 1951. He was educated at Brighton College, a private school in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, England. He studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1972: as per tradition, bi BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) degree in 1975. Remaining at Jesus College, he studied for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree which he completed in 1978. His doctoral thesis was titled "Animal Communities and their Relationship to Prehistoric Economies in Western Europe".

Academic career

From 1975 to 1979, Gamble was an

experimental officer An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

in archaeology at the University of Southampton. In 1979, he became a lecturer in archaeology. He was promoted to Professor in 1996. In 1999 he founded the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins at Southampton. In 2004 Gamble was appointed to a Research Professorship in the Centre for Quaternary Research at

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

, in the University of London. He subsequently returned to Southampton as a professor in the Department of Archaeology in 2011. In 2015 he was a Trustee of the British Museum. He retired from Southampton in 2017 and was appointed an emeritus professor.

Research and Positions

Gamble's main research interests are the archaeology of human origins, the social life of the earliest humans and the timing of their global colonisation.Southampton Dept of Archaeology biography
/ref> Gamble is a Trustee of the British Museum (August 2010-August 2014), Fellow of the British Academy, Fellow and Vice President of the Society of Antiquaries and Fellow and, from 2011 to 2014, President of the

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

. He received the

Rivers Memorial Medal The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

from the Royal Anthropological Institute in 2005. In 2002 he presented ''Where Do We Come From?'', a six-part documentary screened on Channel Five. In 2000 his book ''The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe'' won the Society for American Archaeology Book Award. Gamble is currently part of the NERC-sponsored team that is looking to date key evolutionary events in Europe over the last 60,000 years by dating deposits of volcanic ash. The events that the team is seeking to date includes the arrival of modern humans, the Neanderthal extinction, and the post- Ice Age re-colonisation of northern Europe approximately 16,000 years ago by the direct ancestors of most modern Europeans. Gamble was a co-director on the British Academy Centenary project (2003-2010) ''Lucy to language: The archaeology of the social brain'' Gamble led a fieldwork programme in Greece, which recorded and published all the evidence from field surveys for Palaeolithic and Mesolithic settlement undertaken there in the last 50 years. This led to the publication of ''The Prehistoric Stones of Greece'' which provided the first overview of all stone tools discovered in Greece. There is no comparable overview elsewhere in Europe.

Honours

On 26 November 1981, Gamble was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). In 2000, he was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

(FBA). He is also an elected

Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

(FRAI).

Selected works

*Gamble, C. 2021 ''Making Deep History: Zeal, Perseverance, and the Time Revolution of 1859''. Oxford University Press. *Dunbar, R., Gamble, C. and Gowlett, J. 2014 ''Lucy to Language: The Benchmark Papers''. Oxford University Press. *Gamble, C. 2013 ''Settling the earth: the archaeology of deep human history''. Cambridge University Press. *Boismier, W. A., Gamble, C. and Coward, F. (eds.) 2012 ''Neanderthals among mammoths: excavations at Lynford Quarry, Norfolk UK'', English Heritage Monographs. *Dunbar, R., Gamble, C. and Gowlett, J. (eds.) 2010 ''Social brain, distributed mind'', Oxford University Press. Proceedings of the British Academy 158. *Gamble, C. S. 2007. ''Origins and revolutions: human identity in earliest prehistory''. Cambridge University Press. *Gamble, C. 2007 ''Archaeology: the basics''. 2nd edition. Routledge. *Gamble, C. S., and M. Porr. (eds.) 2005. ''The individual hominid in context: archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts''. Routledge. *Gamble, C. 2003 ''Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization''. The History Press. *Gamble, C. 1999 ''The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe''. Cambridge University Press. *Gamble, C. 1986 ''The Palaeolithic Settlement of Europe''. Cambridge University Press.

References

External links

Prehistoric Stones of Greece
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamble, Clive 1951 births Living people British anthropologists British archaeologists Trustees of the British Museum Academics of the University of Southampton Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Fellows of the British Academy Presidents of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland