Robert A. Ixer obtained his BSc and PhD degrees at the Victoria University of Manchester and taught economic mineralogy, primarily at the Universities of Aston, Birmingham and Leicester. Long after writing the book version of this atlas he retired, and firstly became an archaeometallurgist and then anarchaeopetrographer helping to provenance ores, metals, stone and ceramics. As a result of his archaeological researches, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2010.
His research interests include the mineralogy and paragenesis of base and precious metal assemblages and more recently the provenancing of lithics, pottery and ancient metals. He is author/joint author/joint editor of over 200 books, papers and articles. He dislikes iron, aluminium and manganese minerals and this is his only experience of virtual publishing. He has written over 50 geology and archaeology book reviews but still will only read from paper, preferably hardback copies.
These days although he still consults for the mining industry and for commercial archaeological units, he is best known for his detailed petrographical work on the stones of Stonehenge or as the popular press now express it for ‘working on the druidical plains’.
