Staff profile

About Mark White

Mark White specialises in the Palaeolithic of Britain and its near European neighbours. His published works includes numerous books and articles on handaxes, palaeogeography & settlement history, Levallois technology, the Clactonian controversy and the lamentable British Middle Palaeolithic. 

Mark's second major focus is the history of archaeology. He has published articles evaluating the work and contribution of several Victorian pioneers, such as Sir John Evans, Sir John Lubbock and Worthington Smith, as well as monographs on Nina Layard’s remarkable site at Foxhall Road, Ipswich, excavated between 1903-1905, and Sir William Boyd Dawkins, focussing on the controversy that surrounded his excavations at Creswell Crags in the late 1870s. 

Mark's latest book, A Global History of the Earlier Palaeolithic Period: Assemblng the Acheulean World, 1673-2020s, provides a highly readable and comprehensive narrative of discovery, theory and interpretation in the Palaeolithic. 

He is currently very interested in the market price of handaxes ca 1881. 

Current Projects
Mark is the PI on a major AHRC funded project Digital Technologies, Acheulean Handaxes and the social landscapes of the Lower Palaeolithic, in collaboration with collagues from the British Museum and UCL. The project runs from 2023-2026. 

Recent Works
Mark is the author of numerous books including A Global History of the Earlier Palaeolithic Period (2022), The British Palaeolithic (2012, ), The Quaternary of the Trent (2015) Lost Landscapes of the Palaeolithic (2016) and William Boyd Dawkins and the Victorian Science of Cave Hunting (2016)

Research Students
Mark is interested in supervising PhD students on a wide range Palaeolithic or Mesolithic topics. Durham has an excellent graduate community in this area, with people working on MIS 9 Britain, Cave Art, The cognition of Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthal Religion. Others have recently finished PhDs on the History of the British Palaeolithic, the Middle Pleistocene colonisation of Europe, The Palaeolithic of Syria, the isotopic evidence for Pleistocene migrations, Middle Pleistocene small mammal communities, and The Early Middle Palaeolithic of Britain. Mark would be interested in supervising students on any Palaeolithic topic, so if you are interested in working with Mark please contact him.

• History of Palaeolithic Archaeology
• Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Britain & Europe
• Palaeolithic Stone Tools
• Quaternary studies

Authored book

• White, M. J. A Global History of the Earlier Palaeolithic: Assembling the Acheulean World, 1673-2020s. Routledge
• White, M. (2022). A Global History of the Earlier Palaeolithic: Assembling the Acheulean World 1673-2020s. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003287827
• White, M. (2017). William Boyd Dawkins and the Victorian Science of Cave Hunting. Pen and Sword Books
• Bridgland, D., Howard, A., White, M., & White, T. (2014). Quaternary of the Trent. Oxbow Books
• Pettitt, P., & White, M. (2012). The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World. Routledge
• Morigi, A., Schreve, D., & White, M. (2011). The Thames through time : the archaeology of the gravel terraces of the upper and middle Thames : early Prehistoric to 1500 BC. Part 1, The Ice ages : palaeogeography, Palaeolithic archaeology and Pleistocene environments. Oxford Archaeology
• White, M., & Plunkett, S. (2004). Miss Layard excavates: a Palaeolithic site at Foxhall Road, Ipswich, 1903-1905. Western Academic & Specialist Press

Chapter in book

• White, M., & Bridgland, D. (2018). Thresholds in lithic technology and human behaviour in MIS 9 Britain. In M. Pope, J. McNabb, & C. Gamble (Eds.), Crossing the Human Threshold: Dynamic Transformation and Persistent Places during the Middle Pleistocene (165-192). Routledge
• White, M. (2015). ‘Dancing to the Rhythms of the Biotidal Zone’: Settlement history and culture history in Middle Pleistocene Britain. In F. Coward, R. Hosfield, M. Pope, & F. Wenban-Smith (Eds.), Society, Settlement and Cognition (154-173). Cambridge University Press
• White, M. (2012). The lithic assemblage from Lynford Quarry and its bearing on Neanderthal behaviour in Late Pleistocene Britain. In W. Boismier, C. Gamble, & F. Coward (Eds.), Neanderthals among Mammoths: Excavations at Lynford Quarry, Norfolk (219-261). English Heritage
• Nowell, A., & White, M. (2012). Growing Up in the Middle Pleistocene: life history strategies and their relationship to Acheulian Industries. In A. Nowell, & I. Davidson (Eds.), Stone tools and the evolution of human cognition (67-82). University Press of Colorado
• White, M., Ashton, N., & Scott, R. (2011). The emergence, diversity and significance of Mode 3 (prepared core) technologies. In N. Ashton, S. Lewis, & C. Stringer (Eds.), The ancient human occupation of Britain (53-65). Elsevier
• Scott, R., Ashton, N., Lewis, S., Parfitt, S., & White, M. (2011). Technology and landscape use in the Early Middle Palaeolithic of the Thames Valley. In N. Ashton, S. Lewis, & C. Stringer (Eds.), The ancient human occupation of Britain (67-89). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-444-53597-9.00006-6
• White, M. (2006). Axeing Cleavers: reflections on broad-tipped large cutting tools in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic. In N. Goren-Inbar, & G. Sharon (Eds.), Axe Age: Acheulean Toolmaking, from Quarry to Discard. Equinox Publishing
• Hopkinson, T., & White, M. (2005). The Acheulean and the handaxe: structure and agency in the Palaeolithic. In C. Gamble, & M. Porr (Eds.), The hominid individual in context: archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts (13-28). Routledge
• Ashton, N., & White, M. (2003). Bifaces and Raw materials: flexible flaking in the British Lower Palaeolithic. In H. Dibble, & M. Sorresi (Eds.), Multiple Approaches to the study of Bifacial Technologies (109-124). University of Pennsylvania Museum Press
• White, M. (2001). Out of Abbeville: Sir John Evans, Palaeolithic patriarch and handaxe pioneer. In S. Milliken, & J. Cook (Eds.), A very Remote Period Indeed: papers on the Palaeolithic presented to Derek Roe (242-248). Oxbow
• Ashton, N., & White, M. (2001). Bifaces et matières premières au paléolithique inferière et au debut du paléolithique moyen en Grande-Bretagne. In D. Cliquet (Ed.), Les industries à outils bifaciaux du Paléolithique moyen d'Europe Occidentale (13-21). Etudes et Recherches Archéologiques de l'Université de Liege 98:

Edited book

• White, M. (Ed.). (2016). Lost Landscapes of the Palaeolithic. English Heritage
• White, T., White., M., Bridgland, D., & Howard, A. (Eds.). (2008). The Quaternary of the Trent, Field Guide. QRA

Journal Article

• Dale, L., Rawlinson, A., Knowles, P., Foulds, F., Ashton, N., Bridgland, D., & White, M. (2024). Big enough to matter: on the frequency and chronology of giant handaxes in the British Lower Palaeolithic. Antiquity, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.30
• White, T. S., Bridgland, D. R., Allen, P., & White, M. J. (2023). The Clacton-on-Sea (Essex, UK) GCR site and SSSI: New data and continuing importance. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 134(4), 490-501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2023.07.007
• Cunha, P. P., Bridgland, D. R., Figueiredo, S., Martins, A. A., Allen, P., & White, M. J. (2023). Quaternary Earth-science and Palaeolithic conservation initiatives in the Tejo (Tagus), Portugal: Comparison with the Lower Thames, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 134(4), 476-489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2023.04.006
• White, M. J. (2023). Collectors, class and conflict at the Lower Palaeolithic discovery at Stoke Newington, 1878-1884. World Archaeology, https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2023.2170456
• Rawlinson, A., Dale, L., Ashton, N., Bridgland, D., & White, M. (2022). Flake tools in the European Lower Paleolithic: A case study from MIS 9 Britain. Journal of Human Evolution, 165, Article 103153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103153
• Allen, P., Bain, D., Bridgland, D., Buisson, P., Buylaert, J., Bynoe, R., …White, T. (2022). Mid-Late Quaternary Fluvial Archives near the Margin of the MIS 12 Glaciation in Southern East Anglia, UK: Amalgamation of Multi-Disciplinary and Citizen-Science Data Sources. Quaternary, 5(3), https://doi.org/10.3390/quat5030037
• García-Medrano, P., Shipton, C., White, M., & Ashton, N. (2022). Acheulean Diversity in Britain (MIS 15-MIS11): From the Standardization to the Regionalization of Technology. Frontiers in Earth Science, 10, Article 917207. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.917207
• Walker, J., Clinnick, D., & White, M. (2021). We Are Not Alone: William King and the Naming of the Neanderthals. American Anthropologist, 123(4), 805-818. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13654
• Dale, L., Rawlinson, A., Bridgland, D., & White, M. (2021). The value of English geoconservation sites in understanding historical collections of lower and middle palaeolithic artefacts. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2021.06.008
• Allen, R., Ryan, H., Davis, B. W., King, C., Frantz, L., Irving-Pease, E., …Larson, G. (2020). A mitochondrial genetic divergence proxy predicts the reproductive compatibility of mammalian hybrids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287(1928), Article 20200690. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0690
• Shipton, C., & White, M. (2020). Handaxe types, colonization waves, and social norms in the British Acheulean. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 31, Article 102352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102352
• White, M., Ashton, N., & Bridgland, D. (2019). Twisted handaxes in Middle Pleistocene Britain and their implications for regional-scale cultural variation and the deep history of Acheulean hominin groups. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 85, 61-81. https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2019.1
• White, M., Bridgland, D., Schreve, D., White, T., & Penkman, K. (2018). Well-dated fluvial sequences as templates for patterns of handaxe distribution: understanding the record of Acheulean activity in the Thames and its correlatives. Quaternary International, 480, 118-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.03.049
• White, M., & Foulds, F. (2018). Symmetry is its own reward: on the character and significance of Acheulean handaxe symmetry in the Middle Pleistocene. Antiquity, 92(362), 304-319. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.35
• Chauhan, P., Bridgland, D., Moncel, M., Antoine, P., Bahain, J., Briant, R., …White, T. (2017). Fluvial deposits as an archive of early human activity: progress during the 20 years of the Fluvial Archives Group. Quaternary Science Reviews, 166, 114-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.03.016
• White, M., Pettitt, P., & Schreve, D. (2016). Shoot First, Ask Questions Later: interpretative Narratives of Neanderthal Hunting. Quaternary Science Reviews, 140, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.03.004
• Westaway, R., Bridgland, D., White, T., Howard, A., & White, M. (2015). The use of uplift modelling in the reconstruction of drainage development and landscape evolution in the repeatedly glaciated Trent catchment, English Midlands, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 126(4-5), 480-521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2015.06.005
• Bridgland, D., & White, M. (2015). Chronological variations in handaxes: patterns detected from fluvial archives in north-west Europe. Journal of Quaternary Science, 30(7), 623-638. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2805
• Bridgland, D., & White, M. (2014). Fluvial archives as a framework for the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic: patterns of British artefact distribution and potential chronological implications. Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research, 43(2), 543-555. https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12059
• Bailiff, I., Lewis, S., Drinkall, H., & White, M. (2013). Luminescence dating of sediments from a Palaeolithic site associated with a solution feature on the North Downs of Kent, UK. Quaternary Geochronology, 18, 135-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2013.04.001
• Bridgland, D., Harding, P., Allen, P., Candy, I., Cherry, C., George, W., …Whittaker, J. (2013). An enhanced record of MIS 9 environments, geochronology and geoarchaeology: data from construction of the High Speed 1 (London–Channel Tunnel) rail-link and other recent investigations at Purfleet, Essex, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 124(3), 417-476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2012.03.006
• Pettitt, P., & White, M. (2013). John Lubbock, caves, and the development of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic archaeology. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, 68(1), 35-48. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2013.0050
• Hopkinson, T., Nowell, A., & White, M. (2013). Life Histories, Metapopulation Ecology, and Innovation in the Acheulian
• White, M., & Pettitt, P. (2011). The British Late Middle Palaeolithic: An Interpretative Synthesis of Neanderthal Occupation at the Northwestern Edge of the Pleistocene World. Journal of World Prehistory, 24(1), 25-97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-011-9043-9
• Pettitt, P., & White, M. (2011). Cave Men: stone tools, Victorian science and the ‘primitive mind’ of deep time. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, 65(1), 25-42. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2010.0100
• White, T., Bridgland, D., Westaway, R., Howard, A., & White, M. (2010). Evidence from the Trent terrace archive, Lincolnshire, UK, for lowland glaciation of Britain during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 121(2), 141-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2010.05.001
• White, M., & Pettitt, P. (2009). The demonstration of human antiquity: three rediscovered illustrations from the 1825 and 1846 excavations in Kent's Cavern (Torquay, England). Antiquity, 83(321), 758-768. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00098975
• Scott, B., Ashton, N., Penkman, K., Preece, R., & White, M. (2009). The position and context of Middle Palaeolithic industries from the Ebbsfleet Valley, Kent, UK. Journal of Quaternary Science, 24,
• White, T., White, M., Bridgland, D., & Howard, A. (2009). Palaeolithic and Quaternary research in the Trent Valley (UK) : contributions by early collectors. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 120(4), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2009.08.010
• Howard, A., Bridgland, D., Knight, D., McNabb, J., Rose, J., Schreve, D., …White, T. (2007). The British Pleistocene fluvial archive: East Midlands drainage evolution and human occupation in the context of the British and NW European record. Quaternary Science Reviews, 26(22-24), 2724-2737. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.06.029
• Mishra, S., White, M., Beaumont, P., Antoine, P., Bridgland, D., Limondin-Lozouet, N., …White, T. (2007). Fluvial deposits as an archive of early human activity. Quaternary Science Reviews, 26(22-24), 2996-3016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.06.035
• White, M. (2006). Things to do in Doggerland when you're dead: surviving OIS3 at the northwestern-most fringe of Middle Palaeolithic Europe. World Archaeology, 38(4), 547-575. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438240600963031
• Westaway, R., Bridgland, D., & White, M. (2006). The Quaternary uplift history of central southern England: evidence from the terraces of the Solent River system and nearby raised beaches. Quaternary Science Reviews, 25(17-18), 2212-2250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.06.005
• White, M., Scott, B., & Ashton, N. (2006). The Early Middle Palaeolithic in Britain: archaeology, settlement history and human behaviour. Journal of Quaternary Science, 21(5), 525-541. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1034
• Ashton, N., Lewis, S., Parfitt, S., & White, M. (2006). Riparian landscapes and human habitat preferences during the Hoxnian (MIS 11) Interglacial. Journal of Quaternary Science, 21(5), 497-505. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1032
• Bridgland, D., Antoine, P., Limondin-Lozouet, N., Santisteban, J., Westaway, R., & White, M. (2006). The Palaeolithic occupation of Europe as revealed by evidence from the rivers: data from IGCP 449. Journal of Quaternary Science, 21(5), 437-455. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1042
• Schreve, D., Harding, P., White, M., Bridgland, D., Allen, P., Clayton, F., …Penkman, K. (2006). A Levallois knapping site at West Thurrock, Lower Thames, UK: its Quaternary context, environment and age. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 72, 21-52
• White, M. (2005). The Meticulous Miss Layard. British archaeology (York), 85, 16-19
• Ashton, N., Lewis, S., Parfitt, S., Candy, I., Keen, D., Kemp, R., …White, M. (2005). Excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic Site at Elveden, Suffolk. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 71, 1-61
• White, M., & Ashton, N. (2003). Lower Palaeolithic core technology and the origins of the Levallois method in North-Western Europe. Current Anthropology, 44(4), 598-609. https://doi.org/10.1086/377653
• Bridgland, D., Philip, G., Westaway, R., & White, M. (2003). A long Quaternary terrace sequence in the Orontes River valley, Syria: a record of uplift and of human occupation. Current Science, 84(8), 1080-1089
• Boismier, W., Schreve, D., White, M., Robertson, D., Stuart, A., Etienne, S., …O'Connor, S. (2003). A Middle Palaeolithic site at Lynford Quarry, Mundford, Norfolk: Interim statement. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 69, 314-324
• Ashton, N., Jacobi, R., & White, M. (2003). The dating of Levallois sites in west London
• Shaw, A., & White, M. (2003). Another look at the Cuxton handaxe assemblage. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 69, 305-314
• Schreve, D., Bridgland, D., Allen, P., Blackford, J., Gleed-Owen, C., Griffiths, H., …White, M. (2002). Sedimentology, palaeontology and archaeology of late Middle Pleistocene River Thames terrace deposits at Purfleet, Essex, UK. Quaternary Science Reviews, 21(12-13), 1423-1464. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-3791%2801%2900100-7
• White, M., & Jacobi, R. (2002). Two sides to every story: bout coupé handaxes revisited. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 21(2), 109-133. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0092.00152
• White, M., & Schreve, D. (2001). Island Britain-Peninsula Britain: palaeogeography, colonisation and the Lower Palaeolithic settlement of the British Isles. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 66, 1-28
• White, M. (2000). The Clactonian question: on the interpretation of core and flake assemblages in the British Isles. Journal of World Prehistory, 14, 1-63
• White, M. (1998). On the significance of Acheulian biface variability in southern Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 64, 15-44
• White, M. (1997). The earlier Palaeolithic occupation of the Chilterns (southern England): re-assessing the sites of Worthington G. Smith. Antiquity, 71, 912-931