Rate My Professor Lyn Wadley

Professor Lyn Wadley is an Honorary Professor of Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand, jointly affiliated with the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies and the Evolutionary Studies Institute. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Cape Town (1977) and a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand (1986), with her doctoral thesis providing a social and ecological interpretation of the Later Stone Age in the southern Transvaal. Wadley taught archaeology at Wits from 1982 until her retirement and continues to supervise doctoral students. Her research centres on the southern African Stone Age, with particular emphasis on the Middle Stone Age and evidence for early human cognitive abilities. She directed long-term excavations at Rose Cottage Cave in the Eastern Free State and at Sibudu Rock Shelter in KwaZulu-Natal, as well as work at Border Cave. These projects have yielded key insights into technological organisation, compound adhesives, bedding construction, and resource sharing in the Middle Stone Age. Wadley directs the ACACIA research unit (Ancient Cognition and Culture in Africa) at Wits, which examines cognition and culture through archaeological and experimental approaches. She is an A1-rated researcher by the National Research Foundation, a Fellow of the British Academy (elected 2019), and has been listed among the world’s most highly cited researchers. Her publications include influential papers in Science on 200,000-year-old grass bedding and 170,000-year-old cooked starchy rhizomes, along with numerous articles and books on Stone Age archaeology. Wadley has delivered public lectures on topics such as cooking and sharing food in the Middle Stone Age and remains an active contributor to the field through ongoing research and mentorship.