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Bongumenzi Nxumalo

Chabraja Postdoctoral Scholar: Material History Lab

Undergraduate Degree (Geography and Archaeology), Honour's & Masters (University of Pretoria), PhD (Cambridge University)

Interests

Geographic Field(s):  African History

Thematic Field(s):  Environmental History

Principal Research Interest(s):  Geoarchaeology of southern Africa, State formations in southern Africa, Archaeology of Early Farming Communities, Analysis of soil macro- and micromorphology, physical and chemical dataset, Predictive Modelling using advanced Morphometric analysis in GIS and Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis (HEC-RAS)

Biography

I was born in kwa-Nongoma, north-eastern rural parts of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I have an undergraduate degree in Geography (Geographic Information Systems [GIS]) at the University of Witwatersrand, and there, I was first exposed to African archaeology. I became increasingly interested in the application of predictive modelling (using GIS and remote sensing) to understand the human past; for which I pursued postgraduate studies (Honour's and Masters) at the University of Pretoria and a PhD in Archaeology at Cambridge University. I am interested in topics around; Geoarcheology of southern Africa, Climate change and sustainability, State formations in southern Africa, Archaeology of Early Farming Communities in Southern Africa, Predictive Modelling using advanced Morphometric analysis in GIS and Hydrologic Engineering Center`s River Analysis (HEC-RAS). My research focuses on the role of hydrological changes and the demise of southern Africa’s earliest state-societies in southern Africa. I am currently engaged in field projects focusing on geoarchaeological and geophysical land-surface surveys to model societal developments in the Mapungubwe, Shashe-Limpopo Basin. The proposed research tests the role of seismic activity in the rise and in the decline of Mapungubwe State in the middle Limpopo valley, Southern Africa. In addition, existing geoarchaeological records (soil chemistry and micromorphological analysis) will be integrated to generate a model for changing environmental conditions and cultural developments in the Mapungubwe landscape.