 I am fascinated by the stories that stone tools tell. Since 2003 I've spent endless hours refining methods to extract information about our human past from these artefacts. For me, microscopy has proven to be one of the most valuable scientific tools. Where there is good preservation, a new world unfolds on the tool surface viewed under the microscope. At the moment my research focus is on the development of hunting and hafting technologies, and how they developed over the last 250 000 years in southern Africa. Not only do we gain information about tool function and hafting practices, but also about human cognition and recent behavioural evolution. Another approach that I particularly enjoy is experimental archaeology. There are few things as satisfying as attempting to replicate ancient behaviour by constructing and using your own composite tools. Field seasons are usually spent at Sibudu with Professor Lyn Wadley from the University of the Witwatersrand and her multidisciplinary team. Deep at the bottom of the test excavation is where I'm most at home - when not behind my desk at the museum.
List of publications
2008
Lombard, M. 2008.
Finding resolution for the Howiesons Poort through the microscope:
micro- residue analysis of segments
from Sibudu Cave. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 26-41.
2007
Lombard, M. 2007. The gripping nature of ochre: the association
of ochre with Howiesons Poort adhesives
and Later Stone Age mastic. Journal of
Human Evolution 53: 406-419.
Lombard, M. 2007. Evidence for
change in Middle Stone Age hunting behaviour at Blombos Cave: results of a Macrofracture analysis. South African
Archaeological Bulletin 62: 62-67.
Lombard, M. 2007. Book review:
Andrefsky, W. Jr. 2005. Lithics: macroscopic approaches to analysis. South African Archaeological Bulletin 62: 83-84.
Lombard, M. 2007. Book review:
Niven, L. 2006. The Palaeolithic occupation of Vogelherd Cave:
implications for the subsistence behaviour of late Neanderthals and early
modern humans. PaleoAnthropology
2007: 63-65.
Lombard, M. & Wadley, L.
2007. The morphological identification of residues on stone tools using light microscopy:
progress and difficulties based on blind tests. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 155-165.
Lombard, M. & Wadley, L.
2007. Micro-residues on stone tools: the bigger picture from a South African
Middle Stone Age perspective. In: Barnard, H. & Eerkens, J.W. (eds) Theory and practice of archaeological
residue analysis: 18-28. British Archaeological Reports International
Series 1650. Oxford:
Archaeopress, ISBN 978-1-4073-0084-9.
Wadley,
L. & Lombard, M. 2007. Small things in perspective: the contribution of our
blind tests to micro-residue studies on
archaeological stone tools. Journal of
Archaeological Science 34: 1001- 1010.
Wurz, S. &
Lombard, M. 70 000-year-old geometric backed tools from the Howiesons Poort at Klasies River, South Africa: were they used for
hunting? Southern African Humanities
19: 1-16.
2006
Delagnes,
A., Wadley, L., Villa, P. & Lombard, M. 2006. Crystal
quartz backed tools from the Howiesons
Poort at Sibudu Cave. Southern African Humanities 18(1): 43-56.
Lombard, M. 2006. First
impressions on the function of Still Bay points at Sibudu Cave.
Southern African
Humanities 18(1): 27-41.
Lombard, M. 2006. Direct
evidence for the use of ochre in the hafting technology of Middle Stone Age tools from Sibudu Cave.
Southern African Humanities 18(1):
57-67.
Lombard, M. 2006. Response to
Lewis-Williams and Pearce. Southern
African Humanities 18(2): 186-188.
Lombard, M. 2006. Comparable
data on human hunting behaviour based on macrofracture analysis. Proceedings
of the 18th Biennial Conference of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists, Calgary:
Canada.
http://cohesion.rice.edu/CentersAndInst/SAFA/emplibrary/Lombard,M.SAfA2006.pdf.
2005
Lombard,
M. 2005. Evidence of hunting and hafting during the Middle Stone Age of Sibudu
Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: results of a multianalytical approach. Journal of Human Evolution 48: 279-300.
Lombard, M. 2005. The Howiesons Poort of South Africa:
what we know, what we think we know, what
we need to know. Southern African
Humanities 17: 33-55.
Lombard, M. 2005. A method for identifying Stone Age
hunting tools. South African Archaeological Bulletin 60:
115-120.
2004
Lombard,
M. 2004. Distribution patterns of organic residues on Middle Stone Age
spearheads from Sibudu Cave,
KwaZulu-Natal, South
Africa. South
African Archaeological Bulletin 59: 37-44.
Lombard, M., Parsons, I. &
Van der Ryst, M.M. 2004. Middle Stone Age lithic point experimentation for
macro-fracture and residue analyses: the first set of experiments and
preliminary results with reference to Sibudu Cave
points. South African Journal of Science
100: 159-166.
Van
der Ryst, M.M., Lombard, M. & Biemond, W.
2004. Rocks of potency: rock engravings and cupules
from the Dovedale ward, southern Tuli block, Botswana. South African Archaeological Bulletin
59: 1-11.
Wadley, L., Lombard, M. & Williamson, B.S. 2004. The first
residue analysis blind tests: results and lessons learnt. Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 1491-1450.
Wadley, L.,
Williamson, B.S. & Lombard, M. 2004. Ochre in hafting in Middle Stone Age
southern Africa: a practical role. Antiquity 78: 661-675.
2003
Lombard, M. 2003. The lithic rings from Honingklip,
Goergap, Olieboomspoort and Windsorton: a functional
interpretation based on microscopy. South
African Archaeological Bulletin 58: 6-13.
Lombard,
M. & Parsons, I. 2003. Ritual practice in
a domestic space: evidence from Melora Hilltop,
a Late Iron Age stone-walled settlement in the Waterberg. South African Archaeological Bulletin
58: 79-84.
Lombard, M., Parsons, I. &
Van der Ryst, M.M. 2003. "Lentswe la Badimo": stone of the ancestors. The Digging Stick 20(1): 5-7.
2002
Lombard,
M. 2002. Bored stones, lithic rings and the concept of holes in San shamanism. Anthropology Southern
Africa 25: 17-27.
Lombard, M. 2002. Evidence for
hunting and hafting at Sibudu
Cave during the Middle
Stone Age. The Digging Stick 19(3):
1-3.
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