Students
The Department of Archaeology offers postgraduate Honours, Masters, and Doctoral degrees in Archaeology, and coordinates postgraduate degrees in Quaternary Science (BSc/MSc) and Archaeology & Environmental Science (BSc). Additionally, members of our staff have co-supervised students from a wide variety of other departments, including Geology, Environmental and Geographical Science, Botany, Zoology, and Computer Science. As a result - and as is seen below - student theses span a wide range of interesting, diverse topics.
Current Master Students
Doctoral Students
Postdoctoral Fellows
Recent Masters/Doctoral Graduates
2015
Lauren Schroeder (PhD). A re-evaluation of the morphological affinities of early Homo. Supervisor: RR Ackermann.
Katherine Kyriacou (PhD). Coastal resources and the development of early modern humans on the western Cape coast. Supervisors: D Braun & J Parkington
Cuan Hahndiek. Supervisor: J Parkington
2014
Emily Hallinan (MSc). Mapping Stone Age landscape use in the Olifants River Valley, Western Cape. Supervisors: J Parkington, D Braun
2013
Yonatan Sahle Chemere, PhD. Hominin technological behavior and paleoenvironment during the later Middle Pleistocene in the Gademotta Formation, Main Ethiopian Rift. Supervisor: D Braun.
Kerryn Warren, MSc. Dental and cranial variation in Iron Age peoples from southern Africa. Supervisors: RR Ackermann & S Hall
Nick Zachariou, MPhil.Supervisor: S Hall
Steven Walker (PhD). The role of impact assessment in archaeological heritage management: a South African perspective. Supervisor: S Chirikure & J Sealy.
Wendy Black (PhD). Dental and other variation in Holocene Khoesan material from South Africa. Supervisors: RR Ackermann & JC Sealy.
Abigail Moffett (MPhil). An historical and archaeological study of specialisation in metal production in Phalaborwa, Limpopo, South Africa. Supervisor: S Chirikure & S Hall.
2012
Pat Kramer, MPhil. The history, form and context of the 19th century corbelled buildings of the Great Karoo. Supervisor: S Hall
Kathryn Smuts, MPhil. An archaeology of the 18th and 19th century Cape wine economy from the perspective of Solms Delta and Babylonstoren. Supervisor: S Hall
Troy Smuts. (MPhil). An archaeological perspective on the 19th century development of land, landscape and sheep farming in the Karoo. Supervisor S Hall
2011
Kyle Brown, PhD. The Sword in the Stone: lithic raw material exploitation in the Middle Stone Age at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, Southern Cape, South Africa. Supervisors: D Braun & J Sealy
Malia Johnson, MSc (with distinction). An investigation of stable sulphur isotopes as a palaeodietary indicator in South Africa. Supervisor: J Sealy
Franz Kruger, MPhil. Report on investigation of Class 3 and Class 4 (Doornspruit) homesteads in the North-West Province, South Africa. Supervisor S Hall.
Karen van Niekerk, PhD. Marine fish exploitation during the Middle and Later Stone Age of South Africa. Supervisor: J Sealy
Riashna Sithaldeen, PhD. Phylogeny and phylogeography of the chacma baboon (Papio ursinus): the role of landscape in shaping contemporary genetic structure in the southern African baboon. Supervisors: RR Ackermann.,& J Bishop (Zoology)
Yvonne Viljoen, MPhl. The Story of a Clanwilliam Farm: the history and archaeology of Warmhoek. Supervisors S Hall and J Parkington.
Nick Wiltshire, MSc. Spatial analysis of archaeological sites in the Western Cape using an integrated digital archive. Supervisor J Parkington.
2010
Will Archer, MSc (distinction). Raw Material Economy of the Acheulian Technology of the Western Cape, South Africa. Supervisor: D Braun
Mariagrazia Galimberti, PhD. Investigating the use of oxygen and carbon isotopes and sclerochronology in Turbo sarmaticus and Donax serra for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction at Pinnacle Point, South Africa. Supervisor: JC Sealy.
Andrea Hickman, MSc. Investigating the use of bone density fractionation as a methodological tool in stable light isotope analysis. Supervisor: JC Sealy.
Jenna Lavin, MSc (distinction). Paleoecology of the KBS member in the Koobi Fora Formation of Northern Kenya: Implications for Pleistocene Hominin Behavior. Supervisor: D. Braun.
2009
Mark Anderson, PhD. The historical archaeology of Marathodi: towards and understanding of space, identity and the organisation of production at an early 19th century Tswana Capital in the Pilansberg region of South Africa. Supervisor: S Hall.
Catherine Gray, PhD. Characterising the Namaqualand Mudbelt: chronology, palynology and palaeoenvironments. Supervisors M Meadows and J Lee-Thorp
Jean Gray, MPhil. Understanding the Farming Community Sequence from the Mateke Hills, South-Eastern Lowveld, Zimbabwe. Supervisor: T Maggs & S Hall.
Katherine Kyriacou, MPhil. A re-investigation of Hoffman's/Robberg Cave. Supervisor: JC Sealy.
Morongwa Mosothwane, PhD (Wits Archaeology) Foragers among farmers? Stable isotopic evidence of diet from archaeological human skeletons of east central Botswana. Co-supervisors: K Sadr (Wits) & JC Sealy.
Mamakomoreng Nkhasi, MPhil. An investigation of aggregation types in 17th – 19th century Tswana towns of North-West Province. Supervisor: S Hall.
Eileen Off, PhD. Craniofacial variation, integration, and evolutionary diversification in baboons (genus Papio). Supervisor: RR Ackermann.
Dana Rosenstein, MSc. Sorting out ceramics: correlating change in the technology of ceramic production with the chronology of 18th and early 19th century western BaTswana towns. Supervisor: S Hall.
2008
Jacqui Codron, PhD. Annals of ivory: perspectives in African elephant Loxodonta africana (Blumenberg 1797) feeding ecology from a multi-decadal record. Supervisor: JC Sealy & J Lee-Thorp
Phillip Hine, MPhil. Stone-walled tidal fish-traps: an archaeological and archival investigation. Supervisor: JC Sealy, D Halkett, & T Hart.
2007
Genevieve Dewar, PhD. The archaeology of Namaqualand. Supervisor: JC Sealy.
Rudy Neeser, MSc. (distinction) The use of spatial deformation for correcting the taphonomic distortion of hominid crania in South Africa. Co-supervisors: J Gain (Computer Science) & RR Ackermann.
2006
Daryl Codron, PhD. The ecological and evolutionary significance of browsing and grazing in savanna ungulates. Supervisors: JC Sealy, JA Lee-Thorp (Bradford), M Sponheimer (Colorado).
Erin Finnegan, MPhil. Buried beyond Buitengracht: Interrogating cultural variability in the historic 'informal' burial ground of Prestwich Street, Cape Town. Supervisor: S Hall.
Nicolaas Fourie, MSc (distinction). Dietary ecology and niche separation in three genera (Parapapio, Theropithecus and Cercopithecoides) of South African Plio-Pleistocene Cercopithecoidea. Supervisors: RR Ackermann & J Lee-Thorp.
Frederick Kyalo Manthi, PhD. The Pliocene micromammalian fauna from Kanapoi, northwestern Kenya, and its contribution to understanding the environment of Australopithecus anamensis. Supervisors: J Parkington & DM Avery (Iziko Museums).
Deano Stynder, PhD 2006. A quantitative assessment of variation in Holocene Khoesan crania from South Africa’s western, south-western, southern and south-eastern coasts and coastal forelands. Supervisors: RR Ackermann & JC Sealy.
2005
Ben Ludwig, MSc. A comparison of hunter-gatherer material culture from Matjes River Rock Shelter and the Robberg Peninsula. Supervisor: JC Sealy.
Jeannette Smith, PhD (Wits). Agropastoral sustainability and climate change in the Shashe Limpopo basin from 900 AD. Supervisors: S Hall & J Lee-Thorp.
2004
Jacqui Codron, MSc. (Botany). Annals of ivory: perspectives in African elephant Loxodonta africana (Blumenberg 1797) feeding ecology from a multi-decadal record. Supervisors: J Lee-Thorp & W Bond (Botany).
Thalassa Matthews, PhD. Micromammalian faunas from Langebaanweg and Hoedjiespunt. Supervisors: J Parkington & DM Avery (Iziko Museums).
Jayson Orton, MA. The quartz conundrum: understanding the role of quartz in the composition of late Pleistocene and Holocene lithic assemblages from the Verlorenvlei area, Western Cape. Supervisor: J Parkington.
Liesbet Schietecatte, MPhil. Of fish, pigs and cesspits: a comparative study of stable isotopic analyses of five medieval sites from Belgium. Supervisor: JC Sealy.
Worth, David, PhD. Gas and grain: the conservation of networked industrial landscapes. Supervisor: M Hall
2003
Bastian Asmus, MSc. A digital recording system for creating a rock painting archive. Supervisor: J Parkington.
Fiona Clayton, MSc. Weaning patterns in the Later Stone Age as reconstructed through nitrogen isotope analyses of the skeletons from Matjes River Rock Shelter. Supervisor: JC Sealy.
Daryl Codron, MSc (distinction). (Quaternary Science) Ecological variability of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) living in the South African savannah based on stable light isotopes. Supervisor: J Lee-Thorp.
Conny Meister, MSc. Photogrammetric approaches to the recording of handprints. Supervisor: J Parkington.
Michael Scott, MA. Ju'hoansi Bushmen of /Gam, Namibia, and their pastoralist neighbours: Contact, Crisis of Identity, Hxaro, and Implications for the Past. Supervisor: A Smith.
Tobias Tonner, MSc (distinction). A MapInfo data base for the LSA site of Dunefield Midden. Supervisor: J Parkington.
2002
Corli Coetsee, MSc (Conservation Biology). Stable isotope study of interactions between herbivores,plants and nutrient cycling in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park, South Africa. Co-supervisors: NJ van der Merwe & W Stock (Botany).
Tamara Franz-Odendaal, Ph.D. Analysis of dental pathologies in the herbivores of Langebaanweg and their palaeoenvironmental implications. Supervisors: J Lee-Thorp & A Chinsamy-Turan (Zoology).
Frederick Manthi, MSc. (distinction). The taphonomy of a micromammalian faunal assemblage from the Saldanha Bay yacht club: a contribution to the study of the South African west coast palaeoenvironments. Supervisors: J Parkington & DM Avery.
C. Muller, MA. Investigation of possible dietary differences between the inhabitants of the Robberg/Plettenberg Bay and Matjes River Rock Shelter in the Later Stone Age: an isotopic approach. Supervisor: JC Sealy.
Amanda Rau, Ph.D. Late Quaternary history of Agulhas-Benguela interactions from two sediment cores on the western continental slope of South Africa. Supervisors: JA Lee-Thorp and J Rogers (Geological Sciences).
2001
Harriet Clift, MA. A sortie into the archaeology of the Moravian mission station, Genadenal. Supervisors: M Hall & A Malan.
Nirdev Desai, MSc. The technological, social and economic aspects of gold production and use by the Iron Age of southern Africa. Supervisor: D Miller.
Julie Luyt, MSc. (distinction). Revisiting palaeoenvironments of the hominid-bearing Plio-Pleistocene sites: new isotopic evidence from Sterkfontein. Supervisor: J Lee-Thorp
U. Seeman, PhD. The British military occupation of the Cape 1795 - 1815 the case of York redoubt. Supervisor: M Hall.
2000
P. Nilssen, PhD. An actualistic butchery study in South Africa and its implications for reconstructing hominid strategies of carcass acquisition and butchery in the Upper Pleistocene and Plio-Pleistocene. Supervisor: J Parkington.
1999
Glenda Cox, MA (distinction). Cobern Street burial ground: Investigating the identity and life histories of the underclass of eighteenth century Cape Town. Supervisor: JC Sealy.
Zukisani Jakavula, MA. Archaeological sensitivity model: a cultural resource management exercise. Supervisor: J Parkington.
N.S. Mavrodinov, MA. An assessment of the maritime archaeological potential of the eastern coastline of Table Bay, between the Old South Water Mouth and Blaauwberg. Supervisor: B Werz.
C. Pietersen, MA. The role of archaeology within the urban environment: A study aimed at determining how the people of Cape Town relate to their environment. Supervisor: M Hall.