Lucinda Backwell (born 1966) is an archaeologist and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. She obtained her MSc in palaeoanthropology (cum laude) from the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School in 2000. Her PhD in palaeoanthropology was awarded in 2004, making her the first South African woman to be awarded a PhD in palaeoanthropology at a local institution. In 2011, she was promoted to senior researcher at the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand, where she taught introductory courses on human evolution and taphonomy, and supervised postgraduates on various topics, including fossil assemblages from caves in the Cradle of Humankind. In 2017, she moved to Argentina and took up a position at CONICET. She is associated with the Grupo de Investigación en Arqueología Andina (ARQAND), Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. She has been published 50 times and has been involved in 11 documentaries. Her research interests include taphonomy, archaeology, paleontology and ethnoarchaeology. Research interests Vertebrate taphonomy and the fossil record Early hominin cultural and behavioural evolution Tracing the emergence of modern human behaviour Correlating archaeology, palaeontology and climate change Ethnoarchaeology amongst Kalahari San Origin(s) of ritual mortuary practice Main fields of specialisation Origin and evolution of bone tool technology Microscopic analysis of bone surface modifications San material culture, past and present Current research Border Cave, Middle Stone Age site excavation and analysis, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Experimental taphonomy: ongoing invertebrate modification of bone in South Africa. Experimental taphonomy: refining the functional interpretation of early hominin bone tools; new experiments and texture analyses. Longitudinal studies of modern mammal carcass modification, disarticulation, dispersal and burial in a semi-arid grassland environment in South Africa. Description of Middle Stone Age bone artefacts from Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Holocene mortuary practices in Northwest Argentina. Selected publications Journals Books Proceedings of a conference in honour of Professor Phillip Tobias. Chapters in books Research reports Backwell, L.R. 2008. Report on 2005 – 2007 excavations at Wonderkrater, a late Quaternary spring and peat mound site in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Submitted to South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA). Backwell, L.R. 2008. Report on 2005 – 2007 excavations at Heelbo I, a large mammal mass death assemblage in Free State Province, South Africa. Submitted to South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA). Thesis and dissertation Backwell, L.R. 2004. Early Hominid Bone Tool Industries. PhD submitted by publications.