Palaeoshells – Palaeoshells

Asier García-Escárzaga joins the Max Planck institute as postdoc fellow of the Basque Government

6 March, 2019 by Palaeoshells

Asier García-Escárzaga, researcher in the Palaeoshells project, has been awarded a three-year postdoctoral fellowship from the Basque Government. The fellowship will allow him to work for two years at the Max-Planck Institute in Jena (Germany) under the supervision of Patrick Roberts, and one additional year of reincorporation in the Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archeology of the University of the Basque Country under the supervision of Professor Javier Fernández-Eraso. During the three years of the fellowship, Asier will develop a research project related to isotopic analysis in shells of the limpet Patella depressa, one of the most abundant in Mesolithic shell middens of Atlantic Europe.

Asier García in the Max Planck Institute

Asier García-Escárzaga joins the Palaeoshells project as a research associate

18 January, 201910 January, 2019 by Palaeoshells

Asier García-Escárzaga has recently joined the Palaeoshells project as a research associate. Asier is a specialist in isotopic and elemental analysis in archaeological shells. His task in the project will be focused in the extraction of carbonate samples from the archaeological shells to determine the season of collection.

New microdrill/micromill system for the Palaeoshells project

18 January, 20198 January, 2019 by Palaeoshells

We have installed a new microdrilling/micromilling system to carry out the extraction of carbonate samples from modern and archaeological shells for the analysis of stable oxygen isotopes. The system consists of a motorized drill, a XYZ positioning plate, a digital microscope and a computer to view the images of the drilling/milling process in real time.

The system will be used for the extraction of carbonate samples in order to determine the season of collection of archaeological shells from Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites, one of the main objectives of the project.

Asier García Escárzaga with the microdrill

A new microproject on Palaeoshells: “New experimental method for the study of Prehistoric personal ornaments”

31 October, 2018 by Palaeoshells

Recently, Renata Martínez-Cuesta and Solange Rigaud have started the microproject “New experimental method for the study of Prehistoric personal ornaments” funded and supported by the European Taphonomy Network (TaphEN) and the Palaeoshells project.

During two weeks, both researchers were working in the PACEA laboratory (CNRS, Université de Bourdeaux, France) on the initial stages of the project. The main goal of the project is the creation of an experimental use wear reference collection of shell ornaments. The data generated from this investigation will be compared to archaeological material for better understanding the duration of ornament suspension.

Renata Martínez-Cuesta using the confocal microscope in the PACEA laboratory

Asier García Escárzaga successfully defends his doctoral dissertation on the Mesolithic in the Cantabrian region

31 July, 201830 July, 2018 by Palaeoshells

Last Thursday, July 19, our colleague Asier García Escárzaga defended at the University of Cantabria his doctoral thesis, entitled “Paleoclimate and use of coastal resources during the Mesolithic period in the Cantabrian region”. The thesis, developed from the study of archaeological materials from the rockshelter of El Mazo, located in Andrín (Llanes, Asturias, Spain), provides new information about the so-called Asturian Mesolithic (which extends between 10500 and 7000 years ago), especially regarding the climatic changes that occurred during that period and the subsistence strategies related to the use of the coast by the groups of hunter-gatherer-fishers that inhabited the region.