Professor Victoria Gibbon

Professor

Victoria Gibbon is a biological anthropologist who joined the Department of Human Biology’s Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology in 2016. She is a well published NRF rated scientist. She is highly engaged in research with Forensic Pathology Services, and the South African Police services to assist with active medico-legal death investigations and to improve forensic identification in the Western Cape. She leads a forensic taphonomy research group who are assisting to establish locally relevant standards of time since death estimation. Additionally, she leads a transdisciplinary team of researchers in the Western Cape Cold Case consortium to assist with improving investigative outcomes and forensic identification more generally. She is also actively involved in bioarchaeology research to better understand South African history and heritage. In addition to her research and teaching portfolios she is curator of the UCT Human Skeletal Repository. This role has led her to initiate restitution processes at UCT to return unethically obtained skeletonised individuals and to establishing updated procedures of access and stewardship of skeletonised individuals at UCT. Her research shows an interest in ethical practice in relation to the rights and protection of the deceased, and discrepancies in the national heritage and health legislation that govern research on the recent and ancient deceased persons.

As a species, humans have less than 6% genetic variation between them, compared to chimpanzees with 33% and gorillas with 66%, we are genetically uniform. Despite this uniformity, human variation is poorly understood. Intraspecies variation is important as it demonstrates micro-evolutionary processes (mutations, migration and selection) that become advantageous in a given environment. A better understanding of human variability, past and present, is important to understand our adaptive potential as a species in an ever-changing environment. She uses a three-prong approach in her biological anthropological research theoretical, technological and biological. Theoretically she has an integrative perspective and use a biocultural approach. With this approach she tried to explain and explore the genetic and environmental factors responsible for biological variation that allows people to be understood in their own cultural and environmental context. She uses this biological understanding to scrutinise, and challenge biased historical accounts to provide an objective view into past people’s lives from a cultural relativist perspective. To investigate variation, along with traditional methods of analyses, she uses technologically innovative ways of understanding and reconstructing the biology of past peoples.

Her research and teaching interests are primarily in biological anthropology, human variation, forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology. Her diverse background and training in anatomical, genetic, medical and anthropological sciences allows her to conduct research on a variety of topics, which provides a multitude of research opportunities for students.

Links to research, media and popular articles can be found at the bottom of this page.

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xlH5K24AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=25824871700
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7875-3297

On-Going Research

Forensic Taphonomy & Identification

Human Variation in the Holocene

Forensic Anthropology & Identification

Mseleni Joint Disease

My Research Team 2019

Media Outputs

UCT Collection

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2018-10-28-skeletons-in-the-cupboard-new-varsity-project-is-digitising-history/

Ancient DNA

Human Remains Restitution

Popular articles

Gibbon V, Gretzinger J, Schiffels S. 2024. Ancient human DNA from a South African rock shelter sheds light on 10,000 years of history. Conversation October 2, 2024.
Adams K, Gibbon V.E. 2024. Clothed pig carcasses are revealing the secrets of mummifcation – South African study provides insights for forensic scientists. Conversation May 26, 2024.
Gibbon V. 2023. San and Khoe skeletons: how a South African university sought to restore dignity and redress the past. Conversation July 13, 2023
Gibbon V. 2022. Forensic anthropologists can help the state deal with the escalating numbers of unidentified bodies. Mail & Guardian. December 12, 2022.
Gibbon VE. 2021. Why Scholars have created global guidelines for ancient DNA research. The Conversation. October 20, 2021.
Gibbon VE. 2019. Skeletons and closets: How one university reburied the dead. The Conversation. November 11th, 2019.
Gibbon VE. 2018. How scavengers can help forensic scientists identify corpses. The Conversation November 14, 2018.
Yach D, Gibbon VE, Fredlund V. 2015. Untold story: Mseleni Joint Disease. Global Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. News May 28th, 2015: 1-4.

Chapters in Books

Ntatamala IMT, Gibbon VE, Alaba O, London L. 2023. Tackling the persistent use of racial terminology in South African health Sciences research and training. In: The Politics of Knowledge in the Biomedical Sciences South/African Perspectives. Eds: J Jansen & J Auerbach. Springer Nature, Switzerland. (pp. 145-164). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31913-6_7

Black W, Gibbon VE, Omar R. 2022. Navigating shifting sands: guidelines for human skeletal repatriation and restitution from South Africa. Oxford Handbook of Global Indigenous Archaeologies. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197607695.013.29

Selected Publications

Baliso A, Malek S, Gibbon VE. 2025. A consolidated summary of South African human skeletal repositories. Annals of Anatomy 257: 152326 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aanat.2024.152326

Olszewski J, Hemingway J, Gibbon VE. 2024. A visual guide for the Brabant index to score dental microwear quantity and direction. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology e3349. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3349

Finaughty DA, French GM, Adams KS, Spies MJ, Gibbon VE. Accepted. Quantifying forensically relevant vertebrate scavenging: a pilot study to develop a methodological framework using Cape grey mongoose (Galerella pulverulenta) as an illustrative model. Forensic Sciences Research.
Gertzinger J, Gibbon VE, Penske SE, Sealy JC, Rohrlach AB, Salazar-Garcia DC, Krause J, Schiffels S. 2024. 9,000 years of genetic continuity in Southernmost Africa demonstrated at Oakhurst rockshelter. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02532-3

Adams KS, Finaughty DA, Pead J, Gibbon VE. 2024. Drying the mystery: A novel electronic sensor to quantify soft-tissue desiccation and natural mummification for forensic taphonomy. Scientific Reports 14: 18294 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69446-9

Mole CG, Sealy JC, Stynder DD, Le Roux PJ, Gibbon VE. 2024. Bioarchaeology and evidence of violence from a precolonial Later Stone Age communal burial in South Africa. Plos One 19(9): e0310421. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0310421

Gibbon VE, Thompson JC, Alves. S. 2024. Informed consent for ancient DNA research. Communications Biology 7:815. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06413-0

Meiring KO, Gibbon VE, Alblas A. 2024. Anatomical human body donation in South Africa: inconsistencies of informed consent. Annals of Anatomy 255: 152292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aanat.2024.152292

Van Der Heyden KA, Gibbon VE, Mpolokeng K. 2024. A South African case study on anatomical embalming for human body donation programmes with toxicological considerations. Annals of Anatomy 255: 152296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aanat.2024

Sawchuk et al. incld. Gibbon VE. 2024. Charting a landmark-driven path forward for ancient and modern genetic research in Africa. American Journal of Human Genetics 111: 1243-1251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.05.019

Kotze D, Gunston G, Harris T, He L, Gibbon VE. 2024. Clinical and Anthropological Analyses of a Case From 19th Century South Africa With a Confluence of Uncommon Cranial Pathological Conditions. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery 35(4): e396-e399. https://doi.org/10.1097/SCS.0000000000010265

Adams, K, Finaughty D, Gibbon VE. 2024. Forensic taphonomic experimental design matters: a study assessing clothing and carrion biomass load on scavenging in Cape Town, South Africa. International Journal of Legal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-024-03171-w

Rassool C, Gibbon VE. 2024. Restitution versus repatriation: Terminology and concepts matter. American Journal of Biological Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24889

Dinkele E, Gibbon VE. 2024. Entheseal changes and activity patterns in southern African hunter-gatherer/herders from the Holocene. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 183: 107-124. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24847

Spies M, Finaughty D, Gibbon VE. 2024. Portion size matters: Carrion ecology lessons for medicolegal death investigations – A study in Cape Town, South Africa. Journal of Forensic Sciences 69(1): 28-39. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.15396

Voegt C, Gunston G, Norjte M, Sealy JC, He L, le Roux P, Namayega C, Gibbon VE. 2023. Bilateral hip dysplasia in a South African individual from the 17th – 18th century
International Journal of Palaeopathology 42: 27-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2023.07.002

Mole C, Stynder D. Gibbon VE. 2023. Traumatic cubitus valgus consequent of distal humeral fracture: two case studies from the Later Stone Age in southern Africa. International Journal of Palaeopathology 43: 7:15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2023.07.001

Gibbon VE, Feris L, Gretzinger J, Smith K, Hall S, Penn N, Mutsvangwa TEM, Heale M, Finaughty DA, Karanja YV, Esterhuyse J, Kotze D, Barnes N, Gunston G, May J, Krause J, Wilkinson CM, Schiffels S, Februarie D, Alves S, Sealy JC. 2023. Confronting historical legacies of biological anthropology in South Africa - Restitution, redress and community-centered science: the Sutherland Nine. Plos One 18 (5): e0284785 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284785

Malek S, Sealy JC, Gibbon VE. 2023. Assessment and improvement of current sex estimation standards for application in Holocene San and Khoekhoe populations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 33(3): 489-505. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3221

Finaughty DA, Pead J, Spies MJ, Gibbon VE. 2023. Next Generation forensic taphonomy: Automation for actualistic research. Forensic Science International 345: 111616 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2023.111616

Baliso A, Heathfield L, Gibbon VE. 2023. Informing regional taphonomy research using retrospective forensic anthropology cases in the Western Cape, South Africa. Science and Justice 63 (2):164-172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2022.12.003

Baliso A, Gibbon VE, Heathfield L. 2022. Forensic human identification: Retrospective investigation of anthropological assessments in the Western Cape, South Africa. International Journal of Legal Medicine Jul 30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-022-02870-6

Arendse L, Brits D, Lambert EV, Gibbon VE. 2022. Is the World Health Organization’s multicentre child growth standard an appropriate growth reference for assessing optimal growth of South African mixed-ancestry children? South African Journal of Child Health 16(2):120-124.

Gibbon VE, Finaughty C, Moller I, Finaughty DA. 2022. Pressing need for national governmental recognition of forensic anthropology in South Africa as illustrated in a medico-legal case. Science & Justice 411-417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2022.05.003

He L, Gibbon VE, Xiao X, Wang B, Li H. 2022. Metastatic cancer along the ancient Silk Road: A possible case from Xinjing (China). International Journal of Paleopathology 37:23-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2022.03.001

Alpaslan-Roodenberg et al. incld. Gibbon VE 2021. Ethics of DNA research on human remains: five globally applicable guidelines. Nature 599:41-46. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04008-x

Heathfield L, Haikney T, Mole C, Finaughty C, Zachou AM, Gibbon VE. 2021. Forensic human identification: investigation into tooth morphotype and DNA extraction methods from teeth. Science & Justice 61 (4): 339-344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2021.05.005

Yates J et al. incld. Gibbon VE 2021. Evolution and changing ecology of African hominid oral microbiome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(20):1-11. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2021655118

Gibbon VE, Morris AG. 2021. UCT Human Skeletal Repository: Its stewardship, history, composition and educational use. HOMO-Journal of Comparative Human Biology 72(2): 139-147. https://doi.org/10.1127/homo/2021/1402

Li H, He L, Gibbon VE, Xiao X, Wang B. 2021. Individual Centred social-care approach: Using Computer tomography to assess a traumatic brain injury in an Iron Age individual from China. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2928

Gibbon VE. 2020. African ancient DNA research requires robust ethics and permission protocols. Nature Reviews Genetics

Miles K, Finaughty DA, Gibbon VE. 2020. A review of experimental design in forensic taphonomy: moving towards forensic realism. Forensic Sciences Research 1-11 https://doi.org/10.1080/20961790.2020.179263

Finaughty DA, Spies MJ, Pead J, Gibbon VE. 2020. Automation: A golden ticket for taphonomic research? Forensic Science International 312: 110276 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2020.110276

Gibbon VE, Davies B. 2020. Holocene Khoesan health: a biocultural analysis of cranial pathology and trauma. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2854

Finaughty D, Spies M, Pead J, Gibbon VE. 2020. Automation: A golden ticket for taphonomic research? Forensic Science International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2020.110276

Spies MJ, Finaughty DA, Friedling LJ, Gibbon VE. 2020. The effect of clothing on decomposition and vertebrate scavengers in cooler months of the temperate southwestern Cape, South Africa. Forensic Science International 309:110197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2020.110197

Tawha T, Dinkele E, Mole C, Gibbon VE. 2020. Assessing zygomatic shape and size for estimating sex and ancestry in a South African sample. Science & Justice 60: 284-292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2020.01.003

Dinkele, ES, Ballo R, Fredlund V, Ramesar R, Gibbon V. 2020. Mseleni joint disease: an endemic arthritis of unknown cause. The Lancet Rheumatology 2(1): e8-e9. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(19)30104-3

Baliso A, Finaughty C, Gibbon VE. 2019. Identification of the deceased: use of forensic anthropology at Cape Town's busiest medico-legal laboratory. Forensic Science International: Reports 1:100042. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsir.2019.100042

Finaughty C, Gibbon VE, Speed B, Heathfield L. 2019. A pilot study investigating DNA recovery from teeth in a South African natural marine environment. Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2019.10.097

Mazengenya P, Mokoena P, Billings BK, Bidmos M, Gibbon VE. 2019. Development of discriminant functions to estimate sex in upper limb bones for mixed ancestry South Africans. Science and Justice 59(6): 660-666. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2019.06.007

Forbes MNS, Finaughty DA, Miles KL, Gibbon VE. 2019. Inaccuracy of accumulated degree day models for estimating terrestrial post-mortem intervals in Cape Town, South Africa. Forensic Science International 296: 67-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.01.008

Gibbon VE, Buzon MR. 2018. A diachronic examination of biomechanical changes in skeletal remains from Tombos in ancient Nubia. HOMO-Journal of Comparative Human Biology 69: 158-166. DOI: 10.1016/j.jchb.2018.07.005

Spies M, Gibbon VE, Finaughty D. 2018. Forensic taphonomy: Vertebrate scavenging in the temperate southwestern Cape, South Africa. Forensic Science International 290: 62-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.06.022

Spies M, Finaughty D, Gibbon VE. 2018. Forensic taphonomy: Scavenger-induced scattering patterns in the temperate southwestern Cape, South Africa. Forensic Science International 10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.06.015

Gibbon VE, Carlson K, Grimoud AM, Jashashvili, T. 2018. Use of high resolution computed tomography to diagnose ante-mortem dental root fractures in archaeological samples. International Journal of Paleopathology 22:143-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2017.10.004

Grimoud AM, Gibbon VE, Ribot I. Predictive factors for alveolar fenestration and dehiscence. HOMO-Journal of Comparative Human Biology 68(3): 167-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2017.03.005

Grimoud AM, Gibbon VE. Dental wear quantity and direction in Chalcolithic and Medieval populations from Southwest France. HOMO-Journal of Comparative Human Biology 68: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2016.11.001

Gibbon VE, Porter TA, Wu X, Liu W. 2016. Craniometric examination of Longxian and Qi Li Cun archaeological sites to assess population continuity in ancient northern China. HOMO-Journal of Comparative Human Biology 67: 369-383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2016.06.003

Gibbon VE, Buzon M. 2016. Morphometric assessment of the appendicular skeleton in samples from Tombos in Upper Nubia. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 26: 324-336. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2424

Milner BL, Penny CB, Gibbon VE, Kay P, Ruff P. CD133/EpCAM cancer stem cell markers of tumour stage in colorectal cancer cells. Tissue Science and Engineering 6(143): 1-4 (rank 13/24; impact factor 4.3; citations: GS:5; WOS:0; S:0). DOI:10.4172/2157-7552.1000143

Gibbon VE, Grimoud AM. 2014. Dental pathology, trauma and attrition in a Zambian Iron Age Sample: A macroscopic and radiographic investigation. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 24: 439-458. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2228

Gibbon VE, Gallagher A, Huffman TN. 2014. Bioarchaeological analysis of Iron Age human skeletons from Zambia. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 24: 100-110. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2231

Xing, S, Gibbon V, Clarke R, Liu W. 2013. Geometric populations. Anthropological Science 121(1): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1537/ase.120803

Gibbon VE, Harington JS, Penny CB. 2010. Mseleni Joint Disease: a potential model of epigenetic chondroplasia. Joint Bone Spine 77: 399-404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbspin.2010.01.013

Bidmos MA, Gibbon VE, Štrkalj G. 2010. skeletal remains in South Africa. The South African Journal of Science 106: 29-34 (rank 30/64; impact factor 1.453; citations: GS:30; WOS:9; S:11). DOI: 10.4102/sajs. v106i11/12.238

Gibbon VE, Štrkalj G, Paximadis M, Ruff P, Penny C. 2010. The sex profile of skeletal remains from a cemetery of Chinese indentured labourers in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 106(7/8): 65-68 (rank 30/64; impact factor 1.453; citations: GS:4; WOS:1; S:2). DOI: 10.4102/sajs. v106i7/8.191

Gibbon VE, Penny CB, Ruff P, Štrkalj G. 2009. Minimally invasive bone extraction method for DNA analyses. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 139: 596-599. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.21048

Gibbon VE, Paximadis M, Štrkalj G, Ruff P, Penny CB. 2009. Novel methods of molecular sex identification from skeletal tissue using the amelogenin gene. Forensic Science International: Genetics 3: 74-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2008.10.007

Štrkalj G, Wilkinson AT, Gibbon VE. human variation: can education change students’ attitudes towards ‘race’? Glasnik Etnografskog Institute SANU 55(1): 253-258 (Citations: GS:3; WOS:0; S:0). DOI: 10.2298/GEI0701253S

Štrkalj G,Gibbon VE. 2007. The Race Concept in Contemporary Biological Anthropology. In: Bodzsár ÉB, Zsákai A. (Eds) New Perspectives and Problems in Anthropology. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 37-46.