Lawrence H. Robbins
(Ph.D. University of California- Berkeley, 1968)
Professor
lrobbins@msu.edu

Archaeology, paleoecology, paleolithic; Africa, Botswana

LARRY ROBBINS is a Professor of Anthropology and a Core Faculty member of the African Studies Center. He has conducted archaeological research in the western Lake Turkana area in Kenya and in Karamoja District in Uganda. The Turkana work featured excavations at the Late Stone Age fishing settlement of Lothagam Hill. His current research centers in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Recent projects have been at the Tsodilo Hills, a national monument with over 4,000 rock paintings. These projects have been collaborative with the National Museum of Botswana and have a strong paleoenvironmental focus. Excavations were conducted at White Paintings Rock Shelter; a site highlighted by extensive Late and Middle Stone Age deposits. Other recent work at Tsodilo investigated prehistoric specular hematite mines. Current research is centered on investigating the advent of domesticated livestock in the northern Kalahari. Both graduate and undergraduate students participated in lab and fieldwork associated with the Tsodilo Hills research. Dr. Robbins has published in journals such as Science, World Archaeology, Current Anthropology, The Journal of African History, and The Journal of Archaeological Science.

A few recent publications include:

• Robbins 2006  “Lake Turkana Archaeology: The Holocene,” Ethnohistory 53:72-93.
• Robbins et al. 2005  “The Advent of Herding in Southern Africa: Early AMS Dates on Domestic Livestock from the Kalahari Desert,” Current Anthropology 46: 671-677.
• Robbins et al. 2005   “Archaeology and changing environments in the Kalahari: The Tsodilo Hills Region,”  in 23°S Archaeology and Environmental History of the Southern Deserts, (eds. Mike Smith and Paul Hesse) National Museum of Australia Press.
• Robbins et al. 2000 “Archaeology, Paleoenvironment, and Chronology of the Tsodilo Hills White Paintings Rock Shelter, Northwest Kalahari Desert, Botswana” Journal of Archaeological Science 27:1085-1113.
• Robbins 2000 “Astronomy and Prehistory” In Astronomy Across Cultures, edited by Helaine Selin, pp. 33-52. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
• Robbins 1999 “Adventure in Africa, a virtual tour of the Great Rift Valley” Archaeology 52:92-94.
• Robbins et al. 1998 “Intensive Mining of Specular Hematite in the Kalahari, Ca. AD 800 to 1000” Current Anthropology 39:144-150.
• Robbins and M.L. Murphy 1998 “The Early and Middle Stone Age” In Diswammung: The Archaeology of Botswana, edited by Paul Lane, Andrew Reid and Alinah Segobe, pp. 50-64. Pula Press, Gaborone.
• Robbins 1997 “Eastern African Advanced Foragers” In the Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa, edited by J.O. Vogel, pp. 335-341. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California.