Since early this year Ms Audrey Mahlaela has been working in the Archaeology Department on the Sibudu collection. Sibudu is an archaeological site in a rock shelter about 10 km inland of Tongaat.

The shelter contains deep archaeological deposits. At the top are Iron Age levels dating to about 1000 years ago. Beneath this are much deeper Middle Stone Age remains dating from 25 000 to (so far) 60 000 years ago. Both Marlize Lombard, assistant director of Human Science at the Natal Museum, and I are involved in the excavation of the site under the direction of Lyn Wadley of Wits University.

Audrey is a graduate of the Archaeology Department at the University of Fort Hare. In 2006 she contacted the Natal Museum in the hope that we could provide her with more archaeological experience. She displayed remarkable tenacity and eventually started voluntary work in February 2007.

She travelled far for the experience, from Amamzimtoti, and at her own cost. All this so that she could sit in our workroom and sort stone artefacts, bone fragments and pot sherds from dirt. In addition, Audrey read a great deal, made notes and generally learnt about archaeology in KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa.

We also arranged for her to attend several seminars at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban) that dealt with archaeological topics and go on a one-day field trip to Sibudu.
Audrey has decided that her future lies with archaeological education rather than research and the Education Department has employed her in a temporary capacity recently. She promises to continue visiting us to keep her sorting eye in and to join us in the field.