Matt Pope awarded Stopes Memorial Medal for Palaeolithic Archaeology
31 March 2025
Congratulations to Matt Pope (UCL Institute of Archaeology/Archaeology South-East) who was recently awarded the 2024 Stopes Memorial Medal for Palaeolithic Archaeology.

This month, Matt Pope was invited to receive the Henry Stopes Memorial Medal for 2024 from the Geologists’ Association. The Medal, first awarded in 1947, is given in recognition of individual contributions to research into early Prehistory and the geological context of human origins. Previous awardees have included Mary Leakey, Kenneth Oakley and UCL Honorary Professor, Chris Stringer.
Matt, who has been active in human origins research since 1995, is helping to lead Palaeolithic teaching, research and contract archaeology for UCL, with active projects across southern Britain and the Channel Islands.
He accepted the medal on behalf of his colleagues and gave a lecture entitled 'The British Palaeolithic: Making Way in a Headwind' which focused on the achievements and challenges the discipline faces a quarter of the way into the 21st Century.
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Find out more about Matt's research and that of his ASE colleagues at the 50th anniversary ASE conference being held in Brighton on Saturday 5 April.