Staff

Canals Salomó, Antoni

Researcher

Phone: (+34) 607 982 158

E-mail: acanals@iphes.cat

Sponsor: URV

I earned an undergraduate degree from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1987 and a doctorate from Institut de Paléontologie Humaine – MNHN (Paris) in 1993. I have been a member of the URV’s Area of Prehistory since 1997 and have worked at Institut de Paleoecologia Humana I Evolució Social (IPHES) since its foundation. As a researcher, I have specialized in archaeostratigraphy, spatial analysis, geographic information systems (GIS) and fieldwork and data recording methods and techniques at Pleistocene archaeopalaeontological sites. I am currently participating in several national and international research projects. Most of my work, in both research and archaeology, focuses on the sites of the Sierra de Atapuerca and the western Iberian Peninsula, particularly in Extremadura, where I co-direct the First Settlers of Extremadura team.

In the area of social and spatial archaeology, my research focuses mainly on the stratigraphic and archaeostratigraphic aspects of cultural deposits. I use archaeostratigraphy, or the study of temporality (diachrony and synchrony), as a basis for characterizing anthropic accumulations. The combination of intra-site and extra-site aspects provides deeper insight into mobility and regional and resource management strategies in the context of Pleistocene human groups.

In the area of fieldwork methods and techniques, I have developed specific applications both for research (ARCHEplotter, a program designed for the study of archaeostratigraphy) and for the computerization and mechanization of fieldwork. The ARCH·E project comprises a proposal for the application of new technologies to meet the needs of field data recording.

My archaeological activities, in addition to those conducted at the sites of the Sierra de Atapuerca, focus on the excavations undertaken in Extremadura at the “Calerizo de Cáceres”, a karstic system that has been occupied by human groups from the end of the Early Pleistocene until the present day. The caves of Santa Ana (with a primarily Acheulean record), Maltravieso (end of the Middle and Late Pleistocene, with a symbolic assemblage characterized by the outline of hands and probably dating to the Gravettian period), and Conejar (a site occupied during the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies) document the evolution of the natural and cultural history of a continually occupied, ecologically exceptional area.