Nationality: South African

Institution: University of the Witwatersrand

Department: GAES

PAST programme support: Conferences and workshops: American Association of Biological Anthropologists

Research title: A three-dimensional spatial analysis of the hominin, non-hominin primate and carnivore fossil assemblages from Member 4 at the Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa: Implications for Plio-Pleistocene ecology, morphological variation and hominin evolution.

I am currently a final year PhD candidate in Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand. I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Pretoria after which I moved to Wits for my honours, masters and PhD.

I have been a part of the Sterkfontein Cave research team since 2019 where I completed my MSc focusing on developing methods to utilise legacy data (artefacts and fossils excavated by previous generations) and to better understand the contact between two very important Sterkfontein layers dated to the Plio-Pleistocene: Member 4 and Member 5. My PhD involves employing the methods developed during my masters to gain a better understanding of the very complex Member 4 and its assemblages. I am currently one of the co-permit holders of Sterkfontein Caves, and hope to continue my research at Sterkfontein next year when I have competed my degree. I love being in the field, close to nature and the archaeology we are still exploring.