Maria Carme Belarte Franco

Maria Carme Belarte Franco

Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàssica

Humanities

I am an archaeologist, with a PhD in Geography and History (1995) for the University of Barcelona. From 1996 to 1998 I was a postdoctoral researcher at the CNRS (Lattes, France). From 1999 to 2003 I had different postdoctoral positions at the University of Barcelona where I combined research with teaching tasks and spent research periods in France. In 2004, I took a position at the ICAC. I joined ICREA in 2006 as a researcher and became an ICREA Research Professor in 2010. I currently lead the Protohistory Archaeology team at the ICAC. I have conducted fieldwork in Spain, France, and Tunisia. I made stays as an invited researcher at the Universities of Chicago and Montpellier. In 2013, I received Positive Assessment from the AQU Catalunya (Catalan Evaluation Agency) in order to apply for a University Full Professor position. Since 2019 I have been Academic Supervisor of the Advanced Training Area at the ICAC. Since 2023 I am a member of Institut d'Estudis Catalans.

Research interests

The general goal of my research is to study the processes that transformed the Late Bronze Age local-scale groups into the complex societies of the Western Mediterranean Iron Age. Within this general goal, I deal with more specific topics such as urban planning, architecture, household organisation, domestic activities and funerary practices and rituals. Since 2020 I have been conducting the TRANSCOMB Project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, renewed in 2023. Within this project, an interdisciplinary methodology for studying fire installations in the Iron Age societies of the Western Mediterranean has been implemented. It integrates different techniques coming from Bioarchaeology and Geoarchaeology, as well as Experimental Archaeology, in order to gather information on the use of fuels, natural resources management, and daily activities related to fire.

Selected publications

- Belarte MC, Portillo M, Mateu M, Saorin C, Pastor M, Vila S & Pescini V 2023, 'An interdisciplinary approach to the combustion structures of the Western Mediterranean Iron Age. The first results', Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 47,103803.

- Belarte MC, Pastor Quiles M, Mateu M et al. 2023, 'Iron Age combustion structures in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula: an interdisciplinary experimental study', Archaeological And Anthropological Sciences, 15, 6, 76.
- Belarte MC 2023, 'Building materials and techniques in Iron Age northern Iberia (C. 600-200 BC)', in Previato C & Bonetto G, Terra, legno e materiali deperibili nell’architettura antica. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Padova, 3-5 Giugno 2021), Roma, 187-200.
- Belarte MC & Sanmartí J 2023, L’assentament ibèric d’Alorda Park, o de Les Toixoneres (Calafell, Baix Penedès, Tarragona), Campanyes d’excavació 1992-2001, TRAMA 10, ICAC, Tarragona.

Selected research activities

PI: Estudio transdisciplinar, experimental y etnoarqueológico de estructuras de combustión de la Edad del Hierro en el Mediterráneo occidental (PID2022-137999NB-I00). 2023-2027
PI: Estudio transdisciplinar y experimental de estructuras de combustión en el Mediterráneo occidental durante la protohistoria (1er milenio a.C.) (PID2019-104661GB-I00). 2020-2023
PI: El territori de Cessetània occidental al primer mil·lenni aC: del bronze final a la romanització (CLT009/22/00012). 2021-2025
Oral communication: Belarte MC, Mateu M, Portillo M, et al.: 'Investigating a Greek kitchen from the late archaic occupation at Emporion (Empúries, L’Escala, north-eastern Spain) through interdisciplinary analyses', 29th EAA Annual Meeting. Belfast (UK).
Member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans.
Professor of the Master of Applied Classical Archaeology (MACA). URV-UAB-ICAC.
Academic Supervisor, Advanced Training Area at the ICAC.
Member of the Doctorate Committee (Doctorate in Classical Archaeology). URV-UAB-ICAC.