The Stone Age Archaeology Laboratory examines the evolution of hominin technologies and behaviours. Stone tools provide the bulk of information about prehistoric lifeways, or ways of life, and associated evolutionary dynamics.
The laboratory benefits from the rich Stone Age record in southern Africa, as well as regional archaeological collections, and UCT’s exceptionally long history of Stone Age research.
Research explored at the lab centres on a variety of questions spanning the ~2.5 million years of archaeological record. Lithic analysis represents the primary focus of the lab’s contextual and actualistic research.
Some of the key research areas we address include early toolmaking, the archaeology of modern human origins, hominin carnivory – including hunting technologies – and the ethnoarchaeology of stone tool use, snare construction, and compound adhesive production.
Our lab members conduct field research across several sites in eastern and southern Africa. Ongoing contextual and actualistic experimental studies on projectile use and bone surface modification patterns involve graduate students.
Staff at the Stone Age Research Laboratory:
Students at the laboratory:
- René Sielemann (PhD)
- Henrick Keyter (MPhil,completed 2026)
- Malesela Mogale (MPil)
- Precious Chiwara-Maenzanise (PhD, completed 2024)
Selected publications:
Stárek R, Sahle Y, Atnafu B, Monik M (2026). Identification of heat-treated lithic artifacts via quantitive surface gloss characterization. Scientific Reports 16, 15830. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-44878-7
Sahle Y, Monik M, Ahamed, S. et al. (2025). Ethnographic toolstone heat treatment reveals distinctive motives and patterns of material transfsformation. Scientific Reports 15, 12854. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-97207-9
Chiwara-Maenzanise P, Schoville BJ, Sahle Y, Wilkins J (2025). The Marine Isotope Stage 5 (~105 ka) lithic assemblage from Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter and insights into social transmission across the Kalahari from Basin and its envrons. Journal of Human Evolution 202, 103654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2025.103654
Sahle Y, Lombard M (2024). The evolution of long-range hunting with stone-tipped weapons during the Afrotropic Middle Stone: A testable framework based on tip cross-sectional area. Quaternary 7(4), 50. http://doi.org/10.3390/quat7040050
Sahle Y, Wilkins J (2024). South African Middle Stone Age. Encyclopedia of Archaeology (Second Edition). Academic Press 21-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-90799-6.00022-7
Sahle Y, Hutchings WK, Braun DR, Sealy JC, Morgan LE, Negash A, Atnafu B (2013). Earliest stone-tipped projectiles from the Ethiopian Rift date to >279,000 years ago. PLoS ONE, 10(4), p. e0126064. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078092
Contact:
Yonatan Sahle
Archaeology Department
Beattie Building, Room 3.9
yonatan.sahle@uct.ac.za