Students at the Department of Archaeology at UCT access leading facilities which hold equipment held nowhere else in Africa.
Having access to advanced laboratories and technologies enables our researchers to answer deeper questions about our past. It also gives our graduates access to globally competitive careers.
Staff and research students in the faunal laboratory study animal (faunal) remains, such as bones and teeth, recovered from archaeological and palaeontological sites.
The HAL studies the archaeology of the last 500-years in the Cape colony. Work in this lab also explores methods for public participation in archaeology, including film and community outreach.
This is the only research laboratory in Africa to employ a modern materials science approach to the study of the history of African indigenous technology.
This lab uses innovative quantitative and theoretical approaches to reshape the understanding of how and why we evolved to be the diverse humans we are today. It also examines racism and decolonisation of biological anthropology.
This lab is equipped to measure stable isotopes in bones, teeth, shells, and plant remains enables us to reconstruct the environments in which past humans lived.
Researchers at this lab examine the evolution of hominin technologies and behaviours including early toolmaking, hunting technologies, and stone tool use.