Francesc Burjachs

Francesc Burjachs

Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social

Humanities

Born on 3rd August 1955 in Blanes, Catalonia. Dissertation on Paleopalynology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB, 1985). DEA on Quaternary, MNHN-IPH, Paris (1986). PhD in Biological Sciences (UAB, 1990). Contributor of the Botany Department (UAB, 1979-1990). Director and co-director of several archaeological excavations. Hired researcher at Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera, CSIC, Barcelona (1990-1998). Research Assistant at Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve (1994). Associate Professor at University Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona since 1998. ICREA Research Professor at URV (2001-2007) and at the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) since 2008. Training stages of palynological research abroad: CRA, Sophia Antipolis, France (1978) with Prof. M. Girard; IPH, Paris (1985-1987) with Prof. J. Renault-Miskovsky, and University La Sapienza, Roma (1991) with Prof. M. Follieri. He has published more than 360 papers and reports.


Research interests

My investigation seeks to understand the climatic changes that happened along human evolution. This information is important to appreciate some of the factors which have influenced our evolution towards the current species. More precisely, my work is developed in the science of Palynology, which basically consists in the study of the fossil pollen trapped in the soil that our ancestors stepped on. In this way, we can describe the landscape in which they lived, the climate they endured, the vegetables they ate, etc.

Selected publications

– Biltekin D, Burjachs F, Vallverdú J, Sharp WD, Mertz-Kraus R, Chacón MG, Saladié P, Bischoff JL & Carbonell E 2019, ‘Vegetation and climate record from Abric Romaní (Capellades, Catalonia, Spain) during the Upper Pleistocene (MIS 5d-3)’, Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 220, pp 154-164.

– Marco-Barba J, Burjachs F, Reed JM, Santisteban C, Usera JM, Alberola C, Expósito I, Guillem J, Patchett F, Vicente E, Mesquita-Joanes F & Miracle MR 2019, ‘Mid-Holocene and historical palaeoecology of the Albufera de València coastal lagoon‘, Limnetica, vol. 38, no. 1, pp 353-389.

– Mercuri AM, Florenzano A, Burjachs F, Giardini M, Kouli K, Masi A, Picornell-Gelabert Ll, Revelles J, Sadori L, Servera-Vives G, Torri P & Fyfe R 2019, ‘From influence to impact: the multifunctional land-use in Mediterranean prehistory emerging from palynology of archaeological sites (8.0-2.8 ka BP)’, The Holocene, vol. 29, no. 5, pp 830-846.

– Val-Peón C, Expósito I, Soto M & Burjachs F 2019, ‘A taphonomic approach to the pollen assemblage from Layer M of the Abric Romaní archaeological site (NE Iberian Peninsula)’, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, vol. 270, pp 19-39.

– Fyfe R, Woodbridge J, Palmisano A, Bevan A, Shennan, S, Burjachs F, Legarra-Herrero B, García-Puchol O, Carrión J, Revelles J & Roberts N 2019, ‘Prehistoric palaeodemographics and regional land cover change in eastern Iberia’, The Holocene, vol. 29, no. 5, pp 799-815.


Selected research activities

Organizing Committee of V Reunió OIKOS de Bioarqueologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Catalonia. 24th-25th Mai 2019.

IP project Environmental dynamics and human responses during the Postglacial in the Mediterranean facade of Iberia (c. 12700-8000 cal BP) (HAR2017-88503-P).

Contributor to project Late Glacial and Postglacial Population History and Cultural Transmission in Iberia (c. 15,000-8,000 cal BP) (ERC-CoG-2015).

MedPalyno Symposium. 9-11 July 2019, Bordeaux (France). Vegetation history and human (…) Iberia. New pollen record from the Pego-Oliva basin.