Archaeology-Remembering Past Staff: Professor Marlize Lombard

Professor Marlize Lombard completed her undergraduate degree at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in 2000 before undertaking her postgraduate studies at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). At Wits, in quick succession, she obtained her Honours and Masters degrees in Archaeology, both with distinction. In 2007 she received her PhD by publication from Wits, publishing 11 papers—an extraordinary quantity for a PhD by publication.

While pursuing her postgraduate degrees, she lectured at UNISA between 2002 and 2003 and then took up the position of Research Archaeologist at the Department of Human Sciences in the KwaZulu-Natal Museum (KZN Museum). She was promoted to Assistant Director and HOD of the Human Sciences Department in 2004 and she served in this position until 2008. She left the museum to take up the position of Senior Researcher at the Institute of Human Evolution at Wits, before moving to the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in 2010 where she is now Research Chair in the Palaeo-Research Institute in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies. She publishes prolifically and has received numerous awards for her research.

While at the KZN Museum, she pursued her research interest in the behavioural, cognitive and biological evolution of humankind across the Early and Middle Stone Ages, a period spanning the last 500,000 years. She also ensured that the journal, Southern African Humanities, produced by the KZN Museum was accredited by Science Direct, thereby making the journal a more attractive publishing destination for scholars.