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 a professor of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry of the University of Santiago de Compostela. His research focuses on the study of peatlands as climate archives, using them to reconstruct climate history and atmospheric pollution.

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 – 0000-0002-4209-7889
Email – maia.casna@usc.es

Maia Casna’s main research interests involve palaeopathology as a tool to investigate the human past. Her current research at PollutedPast Project explores the spread of respiratory infections (sinusitis, otitis, pulmonary diseases) in relation to metal pollution in several medieval and post-medieval contexts. As recent clinical studies have pointed out a huge health gap between higher and lower socioeconomic in exposure to pollutants, with her work Maia aims to raise awareness on how social inequalities from the past influenced the ones existing today.

Maia Casna (MSc) graduated in 2017 from a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Bologna, Italy. She joined the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University in 2018 for a Master of Science in Osteoarchaeology, from which she graduated cum laude in 2019. In 2025, she awarded a PhD cum laude from Leiden University for her dissertation on the impact of socioeconomic shifts on the hearth of several medieval and post-medieval Dutch populations.

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Orcid ID – 0000-0002-8690-200X
Email – jaime.almansa@usc.es

Jaime Almansa is an archaeologist specialised in public archaeology (the multiple relations between archaeology and contemporary society). His late research has focused on the management of archaeological sites and the profession and is currently working on the development of new methodologies to determine temporal provenance of looted archaeological artefacts. Within the Polluted Past project, he is delving into the prospective impact of the results and a public policies approach..

Jaime graduated in 2006 from a bachelor’s degree in History and Archaeology in the University Complutense of Madrid. He graduated in the Master in Public Archaeology of Institute of Archaeology in the University College London in 2009. He holded in 2017 a PhD in Archaeology with his thesis about the interaction and action between archaeology and society.

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 – 0009-0004-2997-4391
Email – holliemarie.christelow@usc.es
Predoctoral fellowhip
Supervisor: Olalla López Costas

The journey of Hollie Christellow within Polluted Past began in January of 2026 working as a pre-doctoral researcher. She is preparing to start her PhD programme in 2026 and she is currently researching a 1st century Roman archaeological site called A Lanzada, located in Pontevedra within the province of Galicia. She focus on babies and their mothers, specifically neonatal skeletons, forming two key vulnerable groups within archaeological communities. To learn about these individuals, she began by performing macroscopic analysis of neonatal remains.

Hollie graduated in 2023 from a bachelor’s degree in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Bradford, Great Britain. In 2024 she finished, with distinction, the Master of Human Osteology and Palaeopathology from the University of Bradford.

Orcid ID – 0009-0008-5451-0897
Email – mario.crespo@rai.usc.es
Predoctoral fellowhip
Supervisor: Olalla López Costas

Mario Crespo is a historian and archaeologist interested in the study of human remains in archaeological contexts. He studies cremations from the Second Iron Age in southeastern Iberia, focusing on the reconstruction of funerary rites and the archaeometric study of cremated remains. He has also participated in outreach activities with children and adults related to the archaeological excavation of human remains and the study of these materials, thus bringing his research topic closer to the public.

Mario graduated in 2025 from a bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Santiago de Compostela. In 2026 he finished the Master of Archaeology and Ancient Studies.

Orcid ID –
Email – rebeca.pouso@usc.es

Rebeca Pouso Blanco is a chemistry and works as a lab technician in PollutedPast. She did a MSc in Environmental Chemistry in the University of A Coruña. Rebeca initiated her career as a PhD student at the University of La Coruña analyzing water samples by liquid chromatography. And then she carried on with chromatography tecniques in a few variety of laboratories such as: forensic toxicology laboratory in Santiago de Compostela, chemical product GLP laboratory in Suffolk (UK), purification of pharmaceutical product laboratory in London, pharmaceutical product GMP/GLP laboratory in Madrid and Pontevedra. Rebeca is organized, persistent, a good team player and passionate about research, challenges and learning new things.

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.