P-RI in the Field As excavations continue at the Drimolen Field School, we're excited to head into the weekend with some fascinating new discoveries fresh from the field!

Happy Friday! Field season is officially underway at the P-RI, and the excitement is already building! This year, our Honours student field team includes Nthabiseng Sephoona, Tendai Moorosi, and Siphiwe Hlengwa. They're starting their season at Kromdraai.

P-RI Research Series! Today we would like to congratulate Dr Isis Mesfin for recently publishing a paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Please access the paper through the link below or use the QR code attached: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Happy Friday! Today, we’d like to introduce you to Dr Bongekile Zwane , our archaeobotanist 🌿

P-RI Research Series! Today we'd like to congratulate Dr Matthew Caruana on his latest co-authored publication! Please access the article via the QR or following link: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Get to know the P-RI Staff! Meet Prof. J. Bradfield! He is a lecturer at P-RI who specializes in bone tool analysis and hopes that more students will get into looking at organic technology in the future!

P-RI Research Series! Today we'd like to congratulate Professor Marlize Lombard on her latest co-published article! Please access the paper via the QR code or link below: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Meet the Team at P-RI Today, we proudly introduce Dr Dipuo Kgotleng, Director of P-RI. Her research interests straddle between Plio-Pleistocene fossil faunal analysis, palaeosciences policy as well as heritage management!

P-RI student activities! We are super proud to announce that our first year MA students presented their research proposals today!

P-RI Research Series! Happy Tuesday! We'd like to congratulate Research Associate, Dr Manuel Will, on his latest co-authored publication. Please scan the QR code to access the article or visit the link below: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

P-RI Research Associate, Dr Isis Mesfin, hosted an immersion seminar in palaeosciences in which fourth-year history students from the universities of Sumbe, Huambo, Huila, and Benguela take part.

P-RI Research Series! Today, we'd like to celebrate Drs Manuel Will and Matthias Blessing on their most recent article in Nature Communications. Please access the article via the QR code or link below: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy Friday! Today we would like to introduce our 2nd PhD student, Liteboho Senyane, who is looking to understand interactions between herders and hunter-gatherers in southern Africa through the study of worked bone artefacts.

Congratulations to Dr Gregor Bader and colleagues on their recent publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Please use the QR code or link below to access the article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Today, we'd like to introduce you to Sinéad Watchorn, a second-year Master's student at the P-RI! Sinéad is studying notched tools and their potential for woodworking at Wonderboom Project!

P-RI Student activity! Congratulations to our Honours students for successfully presenting their research proposals to the P-RI community today!

Happy Tuesday! We are proud to celebrate the latest publication by Professor Mattias Jakobsson and collaborators, recently published in The Royal Society’s Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Please access the article via the QR or through the link below: royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Happy Friday! Today we would like to spotlight Charmaine Makombe, our second year Masters student in 2026, who is aspiring to be a forensic anthropologist.

Happy Tuesday! We'd like to congratulate Dr Isis Mesfin on her latest publication in the Journal of Field Archaeology. Please access the paper via the QR code or through the link below: www.tandfonline.com/.../10.../00...

Happy Monday! Please join the Archaeological Society of South Africa Northern Branch's not-to-be-missed excursion to the Olifantspoort Valley, by the foremost expert on the Magalieberg, Mr Vincent Carruthers.

Happy Friday! Today, we'd like to introduce you to Katlego Molebogeng Serobatse, another MA student at the P-RI this year!

P-RI Publication Series! We are immensely pleased to announce that P-RI research chair, M. Lombard, has single-authored a paper in the South African Field Archaeology journal.

We’re pleased to share our participation at the 4th International Conference of the Association of Use-Wear and Residue Analysts (AWRANA26), held in Pisa, Italy. The P-RI was well represented by Professors Marlize Lombard and Justin Bradfield.

P-RI student introductions! Say hello to Vanessa Miles, our amazing Master’s student! She is passionate about heritage in all its complexity. Her research explores new and exciting ways to understand and manage heritage at the iconic Cradle of Humankind.

Happy Wednesday! We'd like to congratulate Dr Isis Mesfin and Dr Matthew Caruana on a newly published article in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology. Please access the paper via the QR code or link below: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Happy Friday! We’re excited to introduce Palesa Setonsa, one of the newest members of our MA cohort at the PRI! Palesa hopes to become a Heritage Management Officer, working to protect and manage important sites. Welcome Palesa!

A very big congratulations to M. Lombard & C. Schlebusch for being featured on ScienceVega6 as women in STEM. The P-RI is immensely proud of this achievement! You can access their article via the link below: edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader...

Happy Friday! Today, we'd like to introduce you to Dimpho Malematja, a first-year Master's student at the P-RI. Dimpho's career goal is to become an archaeobotanist and IKS activist. We wish her all the best with her MA journey!

P-RI Graduations A huge congratulations to K. Mtshizana, P. Setonsa, X. Naicker, D. Malematja and Y. Ngubo on graduating for their Honours degrees on the 24th of March 2026!!! The P-RI is super proud of you all!!!

Happy Tuesday! Thank you to everyone who showed up for our Meet and Greet today! A lot was learned and great conversations were had!

P-RI Student Introduction Please join us in welcoming Yonela Ngubo, a Master’s student at the Palaeo-Research Institute! Marshill Rockshelter and Kruger Cave are among her favourite sites, and Yonela aspires to build a career as an archaeobotanist!

Happy Tuesday! 🎉 Welcome to the Team, René! 🎉 We are excited to welcome René Sielemann to the Palaeo-Research Institute (P-RI) as our new intern for 2026! We look forward to the new energy, curiosity, and fresh perspective she will bring to our work this year.

Today we take a moment to welcome Nthabiseng Sephooana, an honours student, to the P-RI family. She is particularly interested in studying botanical remains from archaeological sites. We cant wait to see her academic growth through the year!

P-RI student introductions! A very warm welcome to new Honours P-RI student, Tendai Moorosi, who is passionate about studying Middle and Later Stone Age tools. We can't wait to see her academic development over the year.

Congratulations to our Master's student, Palesa Setonsa! Palesa has been accepted to the fully funded 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲. The P-RI is very proud!

P-RI in the news! Congratulations to Dr Kgotleng, Director of the P-RI, on being featured in the recent news piece highlighting the powerful role of palaeoanthropology in uniting South Africa. Please access the article via the QR code or link below: www.dongascience.com/en/news/75430

Happy Friday! A warm welcome to our new P-RI Student in 2026, Siphiwe Mathebula. Siphiwe is an Honours student whose research explores bone tools in South Africa to better understand early human behaviour and evolution in the iconic Cradle of Humankind.

P-RI Research Series! Congratulations to P-RI Research Associate, G. Langejans, on her latest publication in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology. You can access the paper via the QR code or via the link below: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Happy reading!

P-RI research series! We are proud to celebrate the contribution of B. Zwane and J. Bradfield to the recently published article in the African Archaeological Review. You can scan the QR code or access the paper via the link below: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Join us for an exciting Lecture! We are delighted to welcome Dr Gregor D. Bader, a leading archaeologist and PRI Research Associate, who will present a talk. Please find the details of the talk in the attached flyer. We hope to see you there!

P-RI Research Series! A very warm congratulations to S. Baker and P-RI associates, D. Strait and A. Herries, on their recent publication of a paper in The Anatomical Record. You can access the paper via the link below: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

P-RI in the news! Congratulations once more to J. Pargeter, and colleagues, for having their research featured in The Conversation recently. You can access their original article via the link below: www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

P-RI in the News! Today we'd like to congratulate A. Hogberg & M. Lombard for co-authoring research that was recently featured in the New York Times! You can access the article via the link below: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Go P-RI, go!

P-RI in the News! Congratulations to Jakobsson and colleagues, including our very own M. Lombard, for having their recent research featured in EurekAlert! Hit the link below to access this piece: www.nature.com/articles/s41... This is well-deserved, keep shinning!

P-RI Research series! Congratulations to J. Pargeter, E. Loftus and colleagues, for co-authoring a new paper in the journal of Archaeometry. You can scan the QR code or use the link below to access it: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

P-RI Research Series We’d like to congratulate P-RI Research Associate, J. Pargeter and colleagues, on the publication of their latest article on Science Advances. You can scan the QR code or access it via the link below: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

P-RI special research alert! Today we'd like to specially highlight the recent work of A. Hogberg and M. Lombard which was published on Science Advances. You can access their paper via the link below: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

P-RI research series! Today we acknowledge and congratulate research associate, J. Kumbani, on his recent publication of an article in the Journal of Music Archaeology. You can access the full paper through the link below: jma.vlg.oeaw.ac.at/index.php/jm...

P-RI Research series! Congratulations to P-RI research associate, G. Langejans, on her latest publication in the Journal of Palaeolithic Archaeology. You can access the paper via the link below: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Happy New Year and welcome to 2026 P-RI Research series!!! Today we congratulate P-RI research associate, C. Schlebusch, for co-authoring an article titled, "Human adaptation in the Andes Mountains." Enjoy it: www.pivotscipub.com/hpgg/5/1/000...