Lucinda Backwell

Last updated

Lucinda Ruth Backwell
Lucinda Backwell (cropped).jpg
Born(1966-09-02)September 2, 1966
NationalitySouth African
Alma materPhD, Msc University of the Witwatersrand
University of Bordeaux
Scientific career
Fields Paleoanthropology, archaeology
Institutions University of the Witwatersrand
Thesis Early Hominid Bone Tool Industries  (2004)
Doctoral advisor Lee Berger
Francesco d'Errico
Website www.lucindabackwell.com

Lucinda Backwell (born 1966) is an archaeologist and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. [1] She obtained her MSc in palaeoanthropology ( cum laude ) from the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School in 2000. Her PhD in palaeoanthropology was awarded in 2004, making her the first South African woman to be awarded a PhD in palaeoanthropology at a local institution. [2]

Contents

Lucinda Backwell (back left) and Francesco d'Errico (University of Bordeaux) with friends Mansweta Heinrich (forefront) and Xoa//'an /ai!ae from Tsumkwe, Namibia. Tsumkwe.jpg
Lucinda Backwell (back left) and Francesco d'Errico (University of Bordeaux) with friends Mansweta Heinrich (forefront) and Xoa//'an /ai!ae from Tsumkwe, Namibia.

In 2011, she was promoted to senior researcher at the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand [3] , where she taught introductory courses on human evolution and taphonomy, and supervised postgraduates on various topics, including fossil assemblages from caves in the Cradle of Humankind. [4] In 2017, she moved to Argentina and took up a position at CONICET [5] . She is associated with the Grupo de Investigación en Arqueología Andina (ARQAND), Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. [6] She has been published 50 times and has been involved in 11 documentaries. Her research interests include taphonomy, archaeology, paleontology and ethnoarchaeology.

Research interests

Taphonomic study of an eland carcass from time of death, Free State, South Africa. Taphonomy of eland.jpg
Taphonomic study of an eland carcass from time of death, Free State, South Africa.
Large mammal butchering experiment using stone tools, Kacgae, Botswana. San butchering experiment.jpg
Large mammal butchering experiment using stone tools, Kacgae, Botswana.

Main fields of specialisation

Bow and bone arrow experiment, Tsumkwe, Namibia. Bone points.jpg
Bow and bone arrow experiment, Tsumkwe, Namibia.

Current research

Excavations at Border Cave showing stratigraphy on the North section of the site Border cave excavations.jpg
Excavations at Border Cave showing stratigraphy on the North section of the site
Early Later Stone Age layers at Border Cave ELSA poster.jpg
Early Later Stone Age layers at Border Cave
Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa Museum Africa (4612452184).jpg
Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

Selected publications

Journals

Books

Chapters in books

Research reports

Thesis and dissertation

Backwell, L.R. 2004. Early Hominid Bone Tool Industries. PhD submitted by publications. University of the Witwatersrand and University of Bordeaux I .

Backwell, L.R. 2000. A Critical Assessment of Southern African "Early Hominid Bone Tools". Unpublished MSc. University of the Witwatersrand.

Documentaries

Cradle of humankind exhibit Cradle of Humankind.jpg
Cradle of humankind exhibit

Awards/recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cradle of Humankind</span> Paleoanthropological site near Johannesburg, South Africa

The Cradle of Humankind is a paleoanthropological site and is located about 50 km (31 mi) northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the Gauteng province. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, the site is home to the largest concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world. The site currently occupies 47,000 hectares (180 sq mi) and contains a complex system of limestone caves. The registered name of the site in the list of World Heritage Sites is Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Behavioral modernity</span> Transition of human species to anthropologically modern behavior

Behavioral modernity is a suite of behavioral and cognitive traits that distinguishes current Homo sapiens from other anatomically modern humans, hominins, and primates. Most scholars agree that modern human behavior can be characterized by abstract thinking, planning depth, symbolic behavior, music and dance, exploitation of large game, and blade technology, among others. Underlying these behaviors and technological innovations are cognitive and cultural foundations that have been documented experimentally and ethnographically by evolutionary and cultural anthropologists. These human universal patterns include cumulative cultural adaptation, social norms, language, and extensive help and cooperation beyond close kin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sterkfontein</span> Archaeological site in South Africa

Sterkfontein is a set of limestone caves of special interest in paleoanthropology located in Gauteng province, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Muldersdrift area close to the town of Krugersdorp. The archaeological sites of Swartkrans and Kromdraai are in the same area. Sterkfontein is a South African National Heritage Site and was also declared a World Heritage Site in 2000. The area in which it is situated is known as the Cradle of Humankind. The Sterkfontein Caves are also home to numerous wild African species including Belonogaster petiolata, a wasp species of which there is a large nesting presence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African archaeology</span> Archaeology conducted in Africa

Africa has the longest record of human habitation in the world. The first hominins emerged 6-7 million years ago, and among the earliest anatomically modern human skulls found so far were discovered at Omo Kibish, Jebel Irhoud, and Florisbad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Paleolithic</span> Subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age

The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago, according to some theories coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity in early modern humans, until the advent of the Neolithic Revolution and agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swartkrans</span> Fossil-bearing cave in South Africa

Swartkrans is a fossil-bearing cave designated as a South African National Heritage Site, located about 32 km (20 mi) from Johannesburg. It is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is notable for being extremely rich in archaeological material, particularly hominin remains. Fossils discovered in the limestone of Swartkrans include Homo ergaster, Paranthropus and Homo habilis. The oldest deposits present at the site are believed to be between 1.9 and 2.1 million years old.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blombos Cave</span> Archaeological site in Western Cape, South Africa

Blombos Cave is an archaeological site located in Blombos Private Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. The cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits currently dated at between c. 100,000 and 70,000 years Before Present (BP), and a Late Stone Age sequence dated at between 2000 and 300 years BP. The cave site was first excavated in 1991 and field work has been conducted there on a regular basis since 1997, and is ongoing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bone tool</span> Tool created from bone

In archaeology, a bone tool is a tool created from bone. A bone tool can conceivably be created from almost any bone, and in a variety of methods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillip Tobias</span> South African palaeoanthropologist and scholar (1925–2012)

Phillip Vallentine Tobias was a South African palaeoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He was best known for his work at South Africa's hominid fossil sites. He was also an activist for the eradication of apartheid and gave numerous anti-apartheid speeches at protest rallies and also to academic audiences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Stone Age</span> Period in African prehistory

The Middle Stone Age was a period of African prehistory between the Early Stone Age and the Late Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50–25,000 years ago. The beginnings of particular MSA stone tools have their origins as far back as 550–500,000 years ago and as such some researchers consider this to be the beginnings of the MSA. The MSA is often mistakenly understood to be synonymous with the Middle Paleolithic of Europe, especially due to their roughly contemporaneous time span; however, the Middle Paleolithic of Europe represents an entirely different hominin population, Homo neanderthalensis, than the MSA of Africa, which did not have Neanderthal populations. Additionally, current archaeological research in Africa has yielded much evidence to suggest that modern human behavior and cognition was beginning to develop much earlier in Africa during the MSA than it was in Europe during the Middle Paleolithic. The MSA is associated with both anatomically modern humans as well as archaic Homo sapiens, sometimes referred to as Homo helmei. Early physical evidence comes from the Gademotta Formation in Ethiopia, the Kapthurin Formation in Kenya and Kathu Pan in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Berger (paleoanthropologist)</span> Paleoanthropologist, physical anthropologist, archaeologist

Lee Rogers Berger is an American-born South African paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. He is best known for his discovery of the Australopithecus sediba type site, Malapa; his leadership of Rising Star Expedition in the excavation of Homo naledi at Rising Star Cave; and the Taung Bird of Prey Hypothesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sibudu Cave</span> Rock shelter with earliest examples of modern human technology in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Sibudu Cave is a rock shelter in a sandstone cliff in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is an important Middle Stone Age site occupied, with some gaps, from 77000 years ago to 38000 years ago.

Howieson's Poort Shelter is a small rock shelter in South Africa containing the archaeological site from which the Howiesons Poort period in the Middle Stone Age gets its name. This period lasted around 5,000 years, between roughly 65,800 BP and 59,500 BP. This period is important as it, together with the Stillbay period 7,000 years earlier, provides the first evidence of human symbolism and technological skills that were later to appear in the Upper Paleolithic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Border Cave</span> Rock shelter in South Africa

Border Cave is a rock shelter on the western scarp of the Lebombo Mountains in KwaZulu-Natal near the border between South Africa and Eswatini. Border Cave has a remarkably continuous stratigraphic record of occupation spanning about 200 ka. Anatomically modern Homo sapiens skeletons together with stone tools and chipping debris were recovered. Dating by carbon-14, amino acid racemisation and electron spin resonance (ESR) places the oldest sedimentary ash at some 200 kiloannum.

The Lebombo bone is a bone tool made of a baboon fibula with incised markings discovered in the Lebombo Mountains located between South Africa and Eswatini. Changes in the section of the notches indicate the use of different cutting edges, which the bone's discoverer, Peter Beaumont, views as evidence for their having been made, like other markings found all over the world, during participation in rituals.

The Rising Star cave system is located in the Malmani dolomites, in Bloubank River valley, about 800 meters southwest of Swartkrans, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. Recreational caving has occurred there since the 1960s. Fossils found in the cave were, in 2015, proposed to represent a previously unknown extinct species of hominin named Homo naledi.

Lyn Wadley is an honorary professor of archaeology, and also affiliated jointly with the Archaeology Department and the Institute for Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Henshilwood</span> South African archaeologist

Christopher Stuart Henshilwood is a South African archaeologist. He has been Professor of African Archeology at the University of Bergen since 2007 and, since 2008, Professor at the Chair of "The Origins of Modern Human Behavior" at the University of the Witwatersrand. Henshilwood became internationally known due to his excavations in the Blombos Cave, where - according to his study published in 2002 - the oldest known works of humanity had been discovered. Henshilwood and his work have been featured on National Geographic and CNN Inside Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco d'Errico</span> (b.1957) Italian archaeologist

Francesco d'Errico is an archaeologist who works as CNRS Director of Research at the University of Bordeaux in France and Professor at the Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour, University of Bergen. In 2014 he was awarded the CNRS silver medal. In 2015 Giorgio Napolitano, president of Italy, presented him with the Fabio-Frassetto prize from the Accademia dei Lincei.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Southern Africa</span> History of Southern African region

The history of Southern Africa has been divided into its prehistory, its ancient history, the major polities flourishing, the colonial period, and the post-colonial period, in which the current nations were formed. Southern Africa is the southern region of Africa, bordered by Central Africa, East Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Sahara Desert. Colonial boundaries are reflected in the modern boundaries between contemporary Southern African states, cutting across ethnic and cultural lines, often dividing single ethnic groups between two or more states.

References

  1. "Members". www.assaf.org.za. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  2. "Staff Profile - Lucinda Backwell". University of the Witwatersrand. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  3. "Staff - Wits University". www.wits.ac.za. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  4. "Lucinda Ruth Backwell". South African Heritage Resources Agency. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  5. "CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos | datos académicos: Backwell Lucinda Ruth". conicet.gov.ar (in Spanish). Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  6. "Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos". CONICET (in Spanish). Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  7. Ruth Schuster (25 April 2018). "Earliest Bone Arrowhead, 61,700 Years Old, Found in South Africa". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  8. "San Elders Speak : Ancestral knowledge of the Kalahari San". Canal-U (in French). 29 March 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  9. San ostrich trap on YouTube
  10. Kate Thompson-Gorry (2013). "Le Voyage de Kgonta Bo, le chaman". Film documentaire (in French). Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  11. Podcast on YouTube
  12. "SABC 3 – Open Up". SABC 3 – Open Up. 2 August 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  13. "DStv Guide". DStv Guide. 12 June 2009. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  14. "University of the Witwatersrand Research Report 2009" (PDF). www.wits.ac.za. University of the Witwatersrand. 2009. p. 206. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  15. Rice, Jocelyn (7 December 2008). "#89: Archaeologists Find the World's Oldest Arrowheads". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  16. "Medal for Original Research at Masters Level". Home. Retrieved 19 June 2020.