Boston University
Department of Anthropology
675 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
joshrobi@bu.edu | (617)358-1671
Profile
Joshua Robinson is an archaeologist with research interests in the paleoecological context of Plio-Peistocene biological and behavioral adaptations of the human lineage. His primary research is focused on understanding the Middle to the Later Stone Age transition in sub-Saharan Africa through the reconstruction of social and exchange networks. The Middle and Later Stone Ages are a critical period of human evolution where various populations of Homo sapiens, as well as other transitional or archaic hominins, likely exchanged genes, ideas, and technology. Robinson is a specialist in geochemical analysis, specifically stable isotope characterization of fossil animal and human tooth enamel. He has conducted fieldwork and museum research across eastern and southeastern Africa, including Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Africa. In addition to studying Middle and Later Stone Age archaeology, Robinson is a research member of the Ledi-Geraru Paleoanthropology Research Project investigating the origins of the genus Homo in Ethiopia. A recently awarded Leakey Foundation grant (2020-2022) will fund a multi-proxy study of the paleoecology of early Homo from the Maka’amitalu region of the Hadar site in Ethiopia.
Selected Publications
Robinson, Joshua (2019). A Holocene paleoenvironmental record based on ungulate stable isotopes from Lukenya Hill, Kenya. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 28, 102016.
Du, Andrew, Joshua Robinson, Ignacio A. Lazagabaster, John Rowan, and Anna K. Behrensmeyer (2019). Stable carbon isotopes from paleosol carbonate and herbivores enamel document differing paleovegetation signals in the eastern African Plio-Pleistocene. Review of Paleobotany and Palynology 261:41-52.
Robinson, Joshua, and Lyn Wadley (2018). Stable isotope evidence for (mostly) stable local environments during the South African Middle Stone Age from Sibudu, KwaZulu-Natal. Journal of Archaeological Science 100:32-44.
Lazagabaster, Ignacio A., Antoine Souron, John Rowan, Joshua Robinson, Christopher J. Campisano, and Kaye E. Reed (2018). Fossil Suidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from Lee Adoyta, Ledi-Geraru, lower Awash Valley, Ethiopia: Implications for late Pliocene turnover and paleoecology. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 504:186-200.