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 390 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

- Ferreria C, Rosina P, Burjachs F & Oosterbeek L 2020, 'The impact of the Little Ice Age in Central Portugal'. In Roque AC, Brito C, Veracini, C (Eds), ‘Peoples, Nature and Environments: Learning to Live Together’. Chapter 3, 26-42 pp. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne.

- Brisset E, Revelles J, Expósito I, Bernabeu-Aubán J & Burjachs F 2020, ‘Socio-Ecological Contingencies with Climate Change over the Prehistory in the Mediterranean Iberia'. Quaternary, vol. 3, 19.

- Burjachs F, Nadal J, Revelles J & Garcia Ll 2020, 'L'alimentació en el Paleolític'. In Garcia Ll & Massanés T (eds), ‘Les arrels premedievals de la cuina catalana’: 6-15. Associació Catalana de Bioarqueologia i Fundació Alícia, Barcelona.


Selected research activities

- Guest Editor:  Brisset E, Dupont C & Burjachs F Eds., Special Issue "Adaptive Capacity of Prehistoric Coastal Communities to Environmental Changes". Quaternary, 3 (3)

- Master Thesis supervised: A. Pena-Pérez, Local fire history reconstruction in the NE Barcelona Plain (Catalonia, Spain), ca. 8000-7500 cal years BP.

- University Master Teaching: Palaeoenvironmental Restitution. Inter-University Master's Degree in Quaternary Archaeology and Human Evolution (Erasmus Mundus).

- Talk: Mite i realitat de les glaciacions quaternàries a Catalunya. Les glaciacions varen arribar a Barcelona? Seminari ‘El paleoclima de Barcelona. Repensar el passat per encarar el futur’, MUHBA, 28th November 2020.

- Congress: 4th Integrated Microscopy Approaches in Archaeobotany (IMAA) workshop. School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, UK, on 15th February 2020. Polo-Díaz A, Burguet-Coca A, Burjachs F, Fernández-Eraso J & Vergès JM. ‘A close-up view of fodder: integrating geoarchaeology and archaeobotany to understand livestock diets and early animal husbandry in the Iberian Peninsula’.

- Member of the Tribunal for one doctoral thesis. Reviewer of 4 journal articles with impact factor.