• MSc (PhD candidate), University of the Witwatersrand

Iron Age; African farmers; African archaeology; Early Iron Age; Nguni history; pottery; ceramic classification; settlement patterns; ancient metallurgy; smelting and forging; anthropological archaeology; material culture; Natal Museum journals; Southern African Humanities.

My research interests encompass the Iron Age of southern Africa. Much of my earlier work was on settlement patterns of African farmers of the first millennium AD, specifically as spatial representations of social organization and worldview. My current research focuses on farmers of the second millennium, where my focus is on the origins, archaeology and ethnography of Nguni-speaking people. I have been involved in the production of several museum displays on archaeological and historical topics and have a special interest in the production of display text.

List of Publications

• Herbert, D. & Whitelaw, G. 1998. Introduction to: An environmental manifesto for the Greater Pietermaritzburg area, developed by the Greater Pietermaritzburg Environmental Coalition. Natalia 28: 53–63.
• Maggs, T. & Whitelaw, G. 1991. A review of recent archaeological research on food-producing communities in southern Africa. Journal of African History 32: 3–24.
• Mitchell, P. & Whitelaw, G. 2005. The archaeology of southernmost Africa from c. 2000 BP to the early 1800s: a review of recent research. Journal of African History 46: 1–33.
• Whitelaw, G. 1991. Precolonial iron production around Durban and in southern Natal. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 3: 29–39.
• Whitelaw, G. 1993. Customs and settlement patterns in the first millennium AD: evidence from Nanda, an Early Iron Age site in the Mngeni River valley, Natal. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 5: 47–81.
• Whitelaw, G. 1994. Preliminary results of a survey of kwaBulawayo, Shaka kaSenzangakhona’s capital from about 1820 to 1827. Southern African Field Archaeology 3: 107–09.
• Whitelaw, G. 1994. KwaGandaganda: settlement patterns in the Natal Early Iron Age. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 6: 1–64.
• Whitelaw, G. 1994-95. Towards an Early Iron Age worldview: some ideas from KwaZulu-Natal. Azania (Special Edition: The growth of farming communities in Africa from the Equator southwards) 29–30: 37–50.
• Whitelaw, G. 1996. Lydenburg revisited: another look at the Mpumalanga Early Iron Age sequence. South African Archaeological Bulletin 51: 75–83.
• Whitelaw, G. 1997. Southern African Iron Age. In: Vogel, J. O., ed., Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa: archaeology, history, languages, cultures, and environments. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. pp. 444–55.
• Whitelaw, G. 1997. Archaeological monuments in KwaZulu-Natal: a procedure for the identification of value. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 9: 99–109.
• Whitelaw, G. 2005. Plastic value: archaeological significance in South Africa. In: Mathers, C., Darvill, T. & Little, B. J., eds, Heritage of value, archaeology of renown: reshaping archaeological assessment and significance. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 137–56.
• Whitelaw, G. 2005. Zulu (amaZulu) smelting. In: Taylor, B., editor in chief, The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, vol. 2. London: Thoemmes Continuum, pp. 1822–4.
• Whitelaw, G. 2005. Comment on Greenfield and Van Schalkwyk’s Ndondondwane, Azania, 2003. Azania 40: 122–7.
• Whitelaw, G & Moon, M. 1996. The ceramics and distribution of pioneer agriculturists in KwaZulu-Natal. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 8: 53–79.