Mike Pitts (archaeologist)

Biography

He first studied archaeology at school, at Ardingly College in Sussex. He gained a degree in archaeology from the then-independent Institute of Archaeology in Bloomsbury, London before moving to Avebury, Wiltshire, as the Curator of the Alexander Keiller Museum. His first book, Fairweather Eden: Life in Britain half a million years ago as revealed by the excavations at Boxgrove (1998), which was co-written with fellow English archaeologist Mark Roberts, dealt with the excavations that had been undertaken at the Lower Palaeolithic site of Boxgrove Quarry by Roberts' team.

He directed excavations at Stonehenge 1979–80, and co-directed the excavation there of one of the Aubrey Holes in 2008. He regularly broadcasts on BBC radio as archaeologist and critic. In 2000 the British Archaeological Press Award was given "to the Guardian and their reporters Mike Pitts and Maev Kennedy for the consistent high standard of articles which appear in that paper". On 15 May 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).