Southern Africa is one of the world’s richest archives of human evolution and environmental history. The Chair in Stable Isotopes in Archaeology and Palaeoenvironmental Studies harnesses cutting-edge isotopic methodologies to read this archive, reconstructing past diets, environments and climates, and offering crucial insights into how human societies have adapted to change over time. Based in the Department of Archaeology, the Chair is also the academic head of UCT’s Stable Light Isotope Laboratory, which provides analyses and research guidance to scholars from across South Africa and beyond who wish to use stable isotopes in their work.

Stable isotopes are increasingly used as natural tracers to address an ever-widening range of research questions in the earth and life sciences. The Chair has been at the forefront of integrating isotopic data with archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence, thus deepening understanding of human adaptation and environmental change. Recent work has expanded into new contexts, including the restitution of human remains and innovative multi-method studies that combine stable isotopes with proteomics and ancient DNA. This work has fostered interdisciplinary collaborations and contributed to global debates on human history and climate change, with implications for contemporary conservation and heritage management strategies. Through the Stable Light Isotope Laboratory, the Chair plays a leading role in providing the infrastructure, expertise and training that enable a broad community of researchers to use stable isotopes in their work, raising the profile of South African science in this internationally significant field.