Professor Mitchell’s research focuses on the archaeology of past hunter-gatherer populations in southern Africa. He has undertaken or directed extensive fieldwork there in Lesotho and is currently completing a monograph for the KwaZulu-Natal Museum on work undertaken some years ago at the site of Likoaeng (Mitchell et al. 2011 Antiquity 85: 1225-1242). Recent papers have used stable isotope analysis to track the long-distance movement of ostrich eggshell beads across the southern African landscape (Stewart et al. 2020 PNAS 117: 6453-6462) and documented unexpectedly early evidence of livestock-keeping by hunter-gatherer groups in highland Lesotho (Fewlass et al. 2020 Nature Human Behaviour 4: 791-799). His synthesis of The Archaeology of Southern Africa (2024: CUP, second edition) is the standard text in the field.
As well as his longstanding focus on southern Africa, Professor Mitchell has written widely on both Africa’s precolonial past and the relations between animals and people. Books on these themes include African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World (2005: AltaMira Press), The First Africans (2008: Cambridge University Press, co-authored with Larry Barham); The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology (2013: Oxford University Press, co-edited with Paul Lane), Horse Nations: The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492 (2015: OUP), The Donkey in Human History (2018: OUP), African Islands: A Comparative Archaeology (2022: Routledge) and — most recently — First Dogs: Hunter-Gatherers and their Canine Companions (2026: Routledge).
Professor Mitchell’s research in southern Africa is facilitated by holding a Research Associateship at the Rock Art Research Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. This and other connections (notably with the University of Mpumalanga) have helped undergraduate members of St Hugh’s to undertake fieldwork in South Africa and Lesotho over many years. Although his own work emphasises the southern end of the continent, his former doctoral students (several of whom have been members of the College) have also worked in the Sahara, the Sahel, Kenya, and Madagascar.
Professor Mitchell is a past President (2004-2006) and Organizing Secretary (2018-2022) of the Society of African Archaeologists, a Past President of the South African Archaeological Society (2024-2026), and co-editor of the journal Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa.
