Thomas Higham (archaeologist)

Thomas F. G. Higham is an archaeological scientist and

Higham grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand, the eldest of four children of Polly and Charles Higham; his father is an archaeologist specialising in the prehistory of southeast Asia. After completing his secondary education at Otago Boys' High School, he studied Archaeology at the University of Otago, receiving a BA Honours degree in 1988 and a master's degree in 1990.^[4] Higham became interested in radiocarbon dating and moved to the University of Waikato where, in 1993, he obtained a DPhil degree at the Department of Chemistry.^{[5][additional citation(s) needed]}

Career and research

Higham worked as the Deputy Director of the radiocarbon dating laboratory at Waikato, before joining the

Higham's work focuses on the development and reliable application of radiocarbon dating in archaeology. His main interests lie in the refinement of the protocols used for the purification of ancient samples prior to radiocarbon dating. His early work focused on the peopling of New Zealand.^[7][8] Upon arrival in Oxford, Higham became involved in testing and improving the ultrafiltration method for dating archaeological bones.^[9]

In 2001, Higham met British archaeologist Roger Jacobi and the two worked closely together on the dating of several key Palaeolithic sites from the British Isles,^[10][11] until Jacobi's death in 2009. The most notable result of this work was the redating of the Red Lady of Paviland,^[12] an iconic early modern human from Britain. Later, Higham reported an age estimate for the Kents Cavern maxilla from Devon, England, the earliest modern human fossil in northwestern Europe.^[13]

Since 2006, Higham and his team at Oxford have worked on defining the timing of

Higham has featured in CNN's series Finding Jesus.^[17]

In 2018, Higham was elected an honorary