Professor Lynette Wadley

Professor Lyn Wadley’s archaeological specialty is the African Stone Age: Middle Stone Age (which lasted from approximately 300,000 to 25,000 years ago) and Later Stone Age (the last 25,000 years). She spent eleven years excavating Rose Cottage Cave in the eastern Free State; excavated the rock shelter, Sibudu, in KwaZulu-Natal; and is now part of the team re-excavating Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal. She is a Honorary Professor of Archaeology in the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand and taught archaeology from 1982 until her retirement in 2004. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of South Africa, and a member of various professional associations including SAfA and ASSAf among others. She was first author on two Science papers reporting the earliest evidence for cooking rhizomes (170,000 years ago) and for creating grass bedding underlain by ash (227,000 years ago). Her “COVID-19-project” was authoring a Waterberg wild flower book with several local plant enthusiasts.