User:Siljusen/Lyn Wadley

Professor Lyn Wadley is an Honorary Professor in archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, who has made major contributions to Stone Age research in Africa.

Background
Professor Lyn (Lynette) Wadley was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, but grew up in Zimbabwe. She worked as a school teacher at Selbourne Routledge School in Harare when she became interested in archaeology. She excavated a rock shelter at Duncombe near Harare before starting her studies in archaeology. Wadley graduated with an MA in archaeology from the University of Cape Town in 1976 and earned a PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1987.

Research & employment history
Prof. Lyn Wadley was appointed Senior Technician at the Department of Archaeology at the University og the Witwatersrand in 1982. From 1983 she was appointed Lecturer at the same department, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1988 and Associate Professor in 1996. Prof. Wadley took an early retirement in 2004, and was then appointed to Honorary Professor at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she continues to do research and supervise postgraduate students.

In the 1980s, prof. Wadley was doing research on Later Stone Age sites in Gauteng, South Africa, using San ethnography to construct models that could be tested archaeologically. This work was at the time the largest number of excavations in southern Africa leded by a female researcher. Rose Cottage Cave was excavated by Prof. Wadley in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This generated research on spatial distribution and gender-related activities. Since 1998, Prof. Wadley have been excavating Sibudu Cave in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Through a multi-disiplinary approach, Prof. Wadley has made major contributions to African Stone Age research. She has been involved in gender studies and has developed and inspired innovative research on Middle Stone Age plants and seeds, identification of use wear and residues  , the use of ochre , cultural modernity , and experimental archaeology. As a recognition of her contributions, a volume in the Goodwin series was dedicated to Prof. Wadley in 2008.