Prof. Astley John Hilary Goodwin was born in Natal (now Kwazulu Natal). He went to study at St. John’s College in Johannesburg and became the first professionally trained archaeologist to be appointed in 1923. He went on to teach the first archaeology course and head the department at the University of Cape Town.
Goodwin made a great contribution to the discipline of archaeology including developing the standard terminology of South African archaeology. He founded the South African Archaeological Society and wrote books like The stone age cultures of South Africa and Method in prehistory.
He died on 5 December 1959.
References
ASAPA (2011). ‘History of archaeology’ from The Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists [online]. Available at www.asapa.org.za[Accessed 23 November 2011]|Van der Poel, J., (2007).”Biographical Notes: Goodwin” in Selections from the Smuts papers vol. vii 1945 ”“ October 1950. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 397