A geoarchaeological perspective on human behaviour

Dr Vera Aldeias, a post-doctoral researcher from Max Plank Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, expert fire experimenter and Neanderthal fire analyst, visited the AMBI Lab and gave an inspiring talk entitled On experimentation and site formation: a geoarchaeological perspective on human behavior.

Campus America: current topics in archaeology

One of the Campus America sessions held in Universidad de La Laguna on October 9-20, 2017 wasd evoted to Archaeology, with talks by Gil Tostevin (University of Minnesota) and Carolina Mallol.

Prof. Gil Tostevin in Campus America
Prof. Gil Tostevin in Campus America

Prof. Gil Tostevin gave a lecture about cultural diversity among Neanderthals. Carolina Mallol emphasized the role of geoarchaeology as a pilar of the archaeological discipline and one of the major trends in current Palaeolithic research.

 

Animal fats and ancient pyro technologies

Dr Tammy Buonasera, member of ERC Paleochar team, gave a talk in Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica Antonio González (IUBO) entitled Animal fats and ancient pyro technologies: reading the residues in archaeological hearth deposits.

Dr Buonasera works on molecular and isotopic studies to characterize animal fats in archaeological contexts.

The aim of these analyses is to determine what these fats are and which animals were consumed.

Through isotopic methods, her research is focused in the study of culinary techniques and the use of fossil fuels.

 

Dr Buonasera during her talk in IUBO
Dr Buonasera during her talk in IUBO

 

10th ERC Anniversary in ULL. Consolidator and Advanced ERC experiences

On June 12thde La Laguna (ULL) held a thematic session focused on Consolidator and Advanced ERC projects, with some practical examples from the fields of archaeology and biophysics. ERC’s national contact point in Spain Esther Rodríguez Blanco and three principal investigators talked about their projects.

 

Carolina Mallol presented her own experience leading ERC PALEOCHAR at ULL since September 15th, 2015.

In her opinion, this implies a great challenge in management and bureaucracy, executive skills and a lot of flexibility and versatility.

As she explained, achieving an ERC grant requires a very clear idea from the scientific perspective, a very specific work plan and many years of previous work.