Archaeology @ UCT                                                                                                                         contact us

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!

 

Masters & PhD Students 2008

Mark Anderson  (PhD) The Late 'Iron Age' Tswana towns of the Bankenveld: Towards an understanding of variability, complexity and identity.  Supervisor: S Hall.

Wil Archer (MSc) Raw Material Economy of the Acheulian Technology of the Western Cape, South Africa. Supervisor: D Braun

Kyle Brown (PhD). Raw Material Selection and Economy in the Middle Stone Age at Pinnacle Point, Southern Cape, South Africa. Supervisor: D Braun.

Tessa Campbell.  (PhD) Evaluating the emergence, spread and evolution of tuberculosis in South Africa.  Supervisor: RR Ackermann & AC Stone (Arizona State)

Mariagrazia Galimberti (PhD) Oxygen isotope analysis of Middle Stone Age shellfish.  Supervisor: JC Sealy & J Lee-Thorp.

Catherine Gray  (PhD EGS)  Investigation of chronological and palynological aspects of the Orange River deltaic mudbelt.  Co-supervisors: M Meadows (EGS) & J Lee-Thorp. 

Jean Gray (MPhil) Ceramics from the Mateke area of southwestern Zimbabwe.  Supervisor: T Maggs & S Hall. 

Andrea Hickman (MSc) Investigating the use of bone density fractionation as a methodological tool in stable light isotope analysis.  Supervisor: JC Sealy.

Phillip Hine (MPhil) An archaeological study of stone-wall fish traps along the Southern Cape coast.  Supervisor: JC Sealy, D Halkett, & T Hart. 

Wendy Konstantellos (PhD).  Dental and other variation in Holocene Khoesan material from South Africa.  Supervisor: RR Ackermann & JC Sealy.

Frans Kruger (MPhil) Investigation of Mzilikaze’s Ndebele during the early 19th century, Rustenburg and Pilanesberg districts, South Africa. Supervisor: S Hall.

Katherine Kyriacou. (MPhil) A re-investigation of Hoffman's/Robberg Cave.  Supervisor: JC Sealy.

Jenna Lavin (MSc). Paleoecology of the KBS member in the Koobi Fora Formation of Northern Kenya: Implications for Pleistocene Hominin Behavior. Supervisor: D. Braun.

Morongwa Mosothwane (PhD Wits Archaeology) Molecular reconstruction of the diet of early and later farming communities in eastern 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) Quantification of craniofacial variation, integration, and evolutionary diversification in baboons.  Supervisor: RR Ackermann.

Dana Rosenstein  (MSc) Correlating change in the technology of ceramic production with the advent of 18th century Western Tswana towns.  Supervisor: S Hall.

Lauren Schroeder (MSc).  A re-evaluation of the morphological affinities of early Homo.  Supervisor: RR Ackermann.

Riashna Sithaldeen (PhD)  Phylogeny and phylogeography of the chacma baboon (Papio ursinus): a genetic study.  Supervisor: RR Ackermann.

Karen van Niekerk  (PhD) Fish remains from the Middle and Later Stone Age of South Africa.  Supervisor: J Sealy.

Steven Walker (PhD) MSA Landscape Utilization, Evidence from a Pleistocene Lakebed. Supervisor: D Braun.

 

Postdoctoral Research Fellows 2006

 

Recent Masters/Doctoral Graduates 

2007

Jacqui Codron, PhD.  Dietary responses of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) to long-term environmental change in the Kruger National ParkSupervisor: JC Sealy.

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). Dietary variability of the African elephant (Loxodonta africana).   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.   Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of animal bone and soil samples from medieval Belgian sites.  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.  (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.   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.  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.

 

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