Orcid ID – 0000-0002-6499-226X
Email – olalla.lopez@usc.es
Ramón y Cajal fellowship

Olalla López-Costas is a physical anthropologist and archaeologist working at the area of Archaeology Dpt of History of Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, where she teach at the bachelor degree of History and Msc of Archaeology and Antiquity Sciences. She also coordinates the research group EcoPast (GI-1553). Her research focuses on human lifestyle (diet, health, pollution and activity) as resulting from complex interactions between socio-cultural systems and environment.

She has extensively worked with archaeological human remains by developing new approaches in paleopathology (infectious diseases and metabolic stress markers), anthropometrical analyses (study of human growth) and geochemical study (stable isotopes, elemental and molecular composition). Her research also include archaeometrical analyses of soil, pottery and natural archives (peatlands, lakes).

She is the main author of the foundation article of PollutedPast.

Orcid ID – 0000-0003-0430-5760
Email – antonio.martinez.cortizas@usc.es

Antonio Martínez Cortizas is profesor at the deparment of Pedology Facof Biology of Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. His research.

Orcid ID – 0000-0001-6355-7285
Email – noemi.silva.sanchez@usc.es

Noemí Silva-Sanchez is an archaeologist and paleoenvironmentalist currently working for PollutedPast Project. Her research combines the study of pollen and NPP, together with geochemical study, for a better understanding of the relationship between humand and environment. She has worked in peatlands from Spain, Sweden and Germany, and currently is acting as advisor for peatland ecosystem in Spanish Red Natura 2000.

Her work in PollutedPast is related to improve metal paleopollution information obtained from natural archives in areas close to the studied funerary sites. She is currently focused in mercury pollution.

Together with Olalla López-Costas and Lourdes López Merino is leading an special issue about Roman fingerprints in environment where she has published a paper about Roman and Lead pollution in Iberia.

Orcid ID – 0000-0001-6483-1442
Email – aranzazu.fernandez.quintas@usc.es

Aránzazu is the medievalist of the team, her function is to search in the ecclesiastical documentation for information that can lead us to know the crops, mining, etc. in the areas where the different deposits that we are studying in the peninsula are located.
She holds a PhD in History from the University of Vigo and the University of Santiago de Compostela, and a Master’s degree in History, Territory and Heritage Resources from the University of Vigo, where she also graduated in History.

Orcid ID – 0000-0003-0237-157X
Email – jennykristina.sjostrom@usc.es

Jenny is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated to Dept. of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University. Her research focuses on reconstruction of past climate and environmental change, for time periods prior to observation data, using peatlands as a natural archive. She has broad interest in peatlands and how they function over time, on centennial to millennial time-scales. Her main research activities are currently focussed on 1) reconstruction of past pollution levels and human effect on human health, 2) past storminess variability in eastern North Atlantic (Ireland, Faroe Islands, Norway and Sweden), 3) carbon dynamics in peatlands, and 4) past hydroclimate and fire variability in eastern South Africa.

Jenny defended her PhD thesis in June 2021 at the Department of Geological Sciences, and before that I have studied physical and human geography at the Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University. I have a BSc in Geography and a MSc in Quaternary Geology, and a MSc in Geography.

Orcid ID – 0000-0001-9080-3699
Email – jacobo.rodriguez@usc.es

Jacobo is a historian specializing in Roman law and slavery, with a PhD in Ancient History from the University of Santiago de Compostela (2021). His research explores imperial legislation on slavery as a way to reassess the profile of the princeps, while also addressing the role of Junian Latins, the socio-legal dynamics of freedmen in Ostia, and diachronic approaches to issues such as sexuality and prostitution in Roman law. He has held pre- and postdoctoral fellowships at USC (Xunta de Galicia, FPU) and UCM (Juan de la Cierva), where he has co-directed teaching innovation projects and contributed to state-funded research initiatives such as LIDIE and LIBOST, the latter resulting in the creation of the online database www.libost.es. His work has been published in high-impact leading journals (Historia, DHA, Gerión, IVRA), collective volumes, and a monograph (Emperadores y Esclavos, ISTA). He has undertaken research stays in Edinburgh, Naples, and Rome, and he is an active member of several international research networks such as GIREA, Deméter or Libera Res Publica. Currently, his research focuses on the uses of metals in Greek and Roman societies as reflected in literary sources.

Orcid ID – 0000-0002-1776-2509
Email – irune.valderrabano.gonzalez@usc.es

Irune holds a degree in Obstetric and Gynecological Nursing (Midwifery) from the University of Cantabria and a degree in History from the UNED. At the University of Santiago de Compostela, she completed a Master’s Degree in Archaeology and Ancient Sciences and holded a PhD in History with her thesis ‘Artemis and Her Youth: A Study of Wild Virginity in Greek Mythology and Religion’ (2020). During her first postdoctoral research period at the USC (2022-2025), she studied the physiological and sociocultural aspects of femininity in ancient Greece in relation to pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. She is currently working for the PollutedPast Project, where she aims to study the conditions of early childhood and paediatric medicine in ancient Greece from Hellenistic texts. Her research also focuses on lactation in ancient Greece.

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Orcid ID – 0000-0002-1764-8685
Email – carlosdavid.garcia@rai.usc.es

Carlos David García-Moreno is an art historian and archaeologist who previously studied in U de Extremadura. He is an expert in field and lab osteological analyses. His thesis is «The memory of Iulia Augusta Emerita: Physical anthropology, paleopathology, paleodiet and mobility“, so he is studying the past of Mérida by analysing the so-called necropolis of Ampliación del MNAR museum. He is currently working as professional archaeologist in Mérida.

He has published three articles and a book chapter regarding the diet, funerary archaeology and paleopathology of the A-MNAR site. Carlos has also published another article with Olalla López-Costas and Antonio Martínez Cortizas to approach the “Roman diet” in Iberia through stable isotope analyses.

Orcid ID – 0000-0001-9349-6540
Email – clara.veiga.rilo@usc.es
Xunta de Galicia predoctoral fellowhip.
Supervisors: Olalla López Costas

Clara Veiga-Rilo is an archaelogist and physical anthropologist who studied at U Autònoma de Barcelona and U de Granada. Her main expertise is oral pathology, specially dental wear and dental enamel defects. Her tesis is exploring the connections of oral pathology with diet and metal exposure by analysing Medieval necropoleis from Galicia (NW Spain). Clara has done research stays in Aberdeen U (Scotland), where she learn the base of pollen analyses, and in London Ontary, where she worked with stable isotopes in aminoacids. She is passionate about bird watching and photography.

Clara´s first article try to reconstruct dietary patterns in medieval Pontevedra by analysing together oral pathology and stable isotopes in bioapatite.

Orcid ID – 0000-0002-7288-7339
Email – marta.colmenares@usc.es
Supervisors: Olalla López Costas, Antonio Martínez Cortizas

Marta is a biologist and bioarchaeologist. She got her biology degree at Universidade de Santiago de Compostela and the Physical and Forensic Anthropology Master’s degree at Universidad de Granada. She is currently pursuing a PhD focused on the application of biogeochemical analyses -more specifically molecular (FTIR-ATR) and elemental (Direct Mercury analysis, ICP-MS)- in the study of archaeological human remains from different funerary practices (inhumation, cremation, artificial mummification). During her pre-doctoral studies, she did two research stays at the Stockholm University (Sweden) where she got the opportunity to learn the slow precipitation of silver phosphates protocol for the analysis of oxygen isotopes on archeological bone. 

Orcid ID – 0000-0002-0343-730X
Email – sonia.robles@usc.es

Sonia holds a degree in History with a specialization in Prehistory and Archaeology from the Universidad de Sevilla. She also holds a Master’s degree in Physical Anthropology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Universidad de Granada. She specializes in the classification of highly fragmented human bone and dental remains and specializes in Dental Anthropology (with a Higher Technician’s degree in Oral Hygiene). Her main area of practice is Bioarchaeology in the Recent Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula, where she draws on the subdisciplines of physical anthropology, the archaeology of death, dental anthropology, zooarchaeology, and forensic and archaeological taphonomy to study megalithic tombs.

She has worked on excavations and studies of anthropological material from the megalithic necropolises of Panoría (Darro, Granada), Los Milanes (Abla, Almería), and Haza Colorada (Morelabor, Granada). He is a fossil animal enthusiast, with a keen interest in their conservation and restoration processes, and a nature lover.

Orcid ID – 0009-0005-9749-1313
Email – aine.francos.golan@usc.es

Ainé Francos Golán is a lab technician who is currently managing the laboratories of PollutedPast team and EcoPast research group (GI-1553). She is a Biologist with extensive expertise in processing archaeological, anthropological and paleoenvironmental samples, and has experience in archaeological excavations. She is trained in collagen and bioapatite extraction, and preparation for ICP-MS. Ainé is currently finishing a Msc. in Biodiversity. She is also a renowned dancer and singer of traditional Galician music.

Orcid ID –
Email – elena.brea@usc.es

Elena Brea Bermejo is the project manager of the PollutedPast project and also helps to manage other projects of the EcoPast team. She is a biologist with a PhD in mussel breeding. She has also extensive experience in organizing seminars, workshops, and meetings. Elena also has experience in CV profiling and publication layout. Her main task in our team is to oversee the administrative and financial aspects of the ERC project. Her other passion is tea, to which she devotes the other half of her working day.