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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

– Piqué R, Morera N, Revelles J, Castells E, López-Bultó O, Franch A & Burjachs F 2021, ‘The Distribution and Use of Box (Buxus sempervirens L.) in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula during the Holocene’. Environmental Archaeology, vol. 26, no 2, pp 179-191.

– Picornell-Gelabert Ll, Servera-Vives G, Carrión-Marco Y, Burjachs F, Currás A, Llergo, Y, Dufraisse A, de Luís-Arrillaga M & Mus-Amézquita M 2021, ‘Late Holocene Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Miller) woodlands in Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean): Investigation of their distribution and the role of human management based on anthracological, dendro-anthracological and archaeopalynological data’. Quaternary International, vol.593-594, pp 346-363.

Burjachs F 2021, ‘Francesc Burjachs i Casas, un dels pioners de l’arqueopalinologia al nord-est de la Península Ibèrica’. In: Díaz-Andreu M & Portillo M (eds), Arqueología e interdisciplinaridad: la microhistoria de una revolución en la arqueología española (1970-2020): 85-91 (capítulo 10). Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona. ISBN 978-84-9168-386-5.


Selected research activities

– Co-organizer of 6th OIKOS Meeting of Bioarchaeology. Organized on line by ACBA.

– Invited and interviewed on the program ‘Versió RAC1’, Ràdio Associació de Catalunya, to talk about ‘climate change’.

– Interview of Gloria Aznar a Francesc Burjachs investigador: “La tendencia natural del clima es ir hacia el frío”. Diari de Tarragona, 21th August 2021, 12-13 pp.

 

ICREA Memoir 2021