Celebrating Fifty Years of Archaeology-Remembering Past Staff: Michael Moon

Mike Moon was born in 1938 in Durban. He completed his schooling at Kearsney College before being employed at Sterns Jewellers. He retired early to pursue his interest in archaeology and wildlife and assisted the then Natal Parks Board and Natal Museum in various fieldwork exercises. He monitored several developments that occurred in and around Durban, and as a result, he discovered many archaeological sites, which he recorded and photographed. Mike Moon joined the South African Archaeological Society in 1981, shortly after his first contact with the Natal Museum archaeologists. He was a team member on the excavation of Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter. He participated in the initial archaeological survey of the Inanda Dam Basin in 1983 and played a key role in the ensuing archaeological rescue project. Moon excavated a pit containing some 90 vessels in 1985. He reconstructed some, which were exhibited at the Jack Heath Gallery at what was then the University of Natal. Moon passed away on 16 January 2021 and his collection is housed in the KwaZulu-Natal Museum.

Celebrating Fifty Years of Archaeology-Remembering Past Staff: Dr Bronwen van Doornum

Bronwen Louelle van Doornum was born on 25 May 1976. She started her bachelor’s degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1994 and completed her doctorate in Archaeology at the same university in 2009. Van Doornum’s doctoral thesis was on hunter-gatherer interaction with farmers in southern Africa, particularly in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area. She joined the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in 2004 as a Senior Curator in the Department of Human Sciences. Her research focus was on the Later Stone Age archaeology of southern Africa. Other than research, van Doornum was involved in various community outreach programmes and she also gave public lectures aimed at enhancing the role of the museum at large. Van Doornum died tragically in a car accident near Warden while returning from Gauteng to Pietermaritzburg on 19 October 2015.

Celebrating Fifty Years of Archaeology-Remembering Past Staff: Valerie Ward

Val Ward was born in 1935 in Durban, where she later studied and then practised medical technology. She published her first paper in 1960 in the SA Journal of Medical History. Her career took her to the United Kingdom, where she married Tony Ward, a pathologist. Together they moved to Hong Kong where Val studied several non-university courses, including archaeology. She became active in the Hong Kong Archaeological Society and published a monograph on stone adzes from the city. On a visit to Natal in 1974, she contacted the Natal Museum and joined an archaeological rescue excavation. In 1977, the Wards returned to South Africa and Val worked for the Natal Museum on a voluntary basis before being offered a position as Technical Officer in 1980. She remained in this position until her retirement in 1998. Val contributed substantially to the Archaeology Department’s research output as author and co-author and was the assistant editor for the Natal Museum Journal of Humanities (now Southern African Humanities) from 1992 onwards. She was also an energetic organizer of the South African Archaeological Society’s Natal Branch. In many ways, Val occupied the crucial role of what is today termed a “Collections Manager”. She ensured that protocol and procedure were followed in regard to the use of the museum’s collections while never obstructing the research process. She passed away in 2016.