About
314
Publications
108,900
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
3,556
Citations
Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 1992 - December 2012
Publications
Publications (314)
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis is crucial for understanding human population structure and genetic diversity. However, post-mortem DNA damage poses challenges, that make analysis difficult. DNA preservation is affected by environmental conditions which, among other factors, complicates the differentiation of endogenous variants from artefacts i...
The burial 7 from the Argaric site of Laderas del Castillo (Alicante, Spain), dating from the 2nd millennium BC, included a skeleton associated with a carinated vessel indicative of social recognition. Anthropological and DNA-based methods were combined to determine that the individual corresponds to a young female. Macro- and scanning microscopic...
Genome and transcriptome examinations have become more common due to Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), which significantly increases throughput and depth coverage while reducing costs and time. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is often the marker of choice in degraded samples from archaeological and forensic contexts, as its higher number of copies can im...
The Neonatal Line (NNL) of the tooth serves as a unique identifier, allowing us to distinguish whether a child survived birth. This line is essential for assessing the age at death of infants from skeletal remains found in archaeological contexts. Our primary objective is to accurately determine the age of infant intramural in-humations from the Ib...
Lime is commonly used in human burials, but its effects on bodies are not clear at all. Different short-time experimental studies concluded that lime does not inhibit the decomposition of bodies. To provide the long-term effects of lime on bodies, this work presents the results of six burials of pig carcasses completely or partially covered with li...
Poor nuclear DNA preservation from highly degraded skeletal remains is the most limiting factor for the genetic identification of individuals. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) typing, and especially of the control region (CR), using next-generation sequencing (NGS), enables retrieval of valuable genetic information in forensic contexts where highly degrad...
Calcifications in the thyrohyoid ligament are uncommon and usually involve triticeal cartilage. This report analyzes an uncommon thyrohyoid ossification in an individual from the 18th century. To study this ossification, an X-ray analysis was made and the measurements of the different segments of the bone were taken to compare to other cases. The r...
Current paleodietary studies about the Naviform and Talayotic groups that took place in Minorca (Balearic Islands) during the Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age (ca.1600–850/800 BC) have suggested a mixed and variable diet, largely depending on terrestrial sources of vegetables and meat. This study explores the nutritional pattern of the individuals bu...
Limestone and derivatives (quicklime and hydrated lime) are commonly used in the agriculture and industry. Although the effects on bodies are not well defined, lime is also used in human burials. It is considered that lime reduces the smell of the putrefaction and it accelerates the decomposition, but it is believed that it helps to the conservatio...
Taphonomy is the study of the modifications that biological organisms undergo from the moment of their death. By analysing the post mortem modifications of the bones, it is possible to recognize the responsible taphonomic agents and processes of these modifications. Taphonomy is also used to solve forensic-anthropological cases to contribute to the...
La Tafonomía se define como el estudio de la “transición de restos orgánicos desde la biosfera a la litosfera” (Efremov, 1940), aplicable a los estudios de Arqueología, Paleontología y, aunque poco habitual, en Antropología Biológica. Identificando los efectos tafonómicos en los restos cadavéricos, es posible inferir los agentes y procesos tafonómi...
A través del estudio antropológico del yacimiento de Accés Est de Casserres (AEC) en el Berguedà, Catalunya, hemos podido acercarnos a una población rural que vivió en el alto medievo en un momento convulso en la Península Ibérica, con la caída del Imperio Romano de Occidente, la llegada de los visigodos y posteriormente las disputas por el territo...
The War of the Pacific (1879-1884) was a big scale war between Chile against the alliance of Peru and Bolivia. One of the most important battles, the "Batalla del Campo de la Alianza" was situated in the desert near Tacna, Peru. The conditions of this environment favored the conservation of the dead soldiers after many years. Decades ago, the Natur...
Taphonomy is also useful to understand the post mortem processes and changes in human cadaveric remains both in forensic and paleoanthropological contexts. However, there is not much information to identify the taphonomic modifications and therefore, cases cannot always be solved. Because of that, more experimentation is needed to recognize the tap...
The Iberians were the people that occupied the Mediterranean region of the Iberian Peninsula between the 7th and 1st centuries BC. They were organized in several tribes or tribal confederacies. The most common funerary practice among Iberian was to the incineration of dead. However, infant skeletal remains have been found buried in some settlements...
The Generalitat de Catalunya between 2006 and 2016 commisioned the excavation of a series of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War and subsequent Franco dictatorship to identify the victims. The final step of this process consisted of genetic analyses to both ascertain or confirm the identifications of the victims. In spite of the fact that certai...
A wide number of factors can affect the structure of the bones in the foot. In bioarchaeology, few studies about foot anomalies include population comparisons and changes across time. We aimed to identify normal and pathological variability that affected the foot in the recent history of West Mediterranean populations. Thus, we analyzed change in o...
Flat feet (pes planus) are considered a postural defect caused by the collapse of the longitudinal arch, producing complete or near-complete contact of the sole of the foot with the ground. Pes planus has been well-studied in clinical literature and paleoanthropology but has not been approached extensively in bioarchaeology. The main difficulty is...
Background
The fungi present in the decaying remains enable a better understanding of the processes of decomposition after death. There are not many studies about fungi on decaying bodies and it is not known which fungal sampling methods are effective.
Aims
The main objective of this study was to find the best method for sampling fungi in carcasse...
L’any 2016 es va posar al descobert una cista intacta al Camp de la Bruna, a Lladurs (el Solsonès), a causa d’uns treballs agrícoles. Aleshores, el Servei d’Arqueologia i Paleontologia va decidir realitzar una excavació d’urgència per tal de documentar-la, intervenció que va proporcionar uns interessants resultats d’una cista del neolític mitjà-rec...
Retrieving DNA from highly-degraded human skeletal remains is still a challenge due to low concentration and fragmentation which makes it difficult to extract and purify. Recent works showed that silica-based methods allow better DNA recovery and this fact may be attributed to the type of bones and the quality of the preserved tissue. However, more...
Globally, rock art is one of the most widely distributed manifestations of past human activity. Previous research, however, has tended to focus on the art rather than artists. Understanding which members of society participated in creating such art is crucial to interpreting its social implications and that of the sites at which it is found. This a...
El yacimiento “Accés Est de Casserres” (Berguedà, Barcelona) es una de las necrópolis alto medievales (ss. V-XI d. C.) más extensa estudiada a día de hoy en Cataluña. Los primeros resultados de los análisis realizados en los maxilares, dientes y la articulación temporomandibular muestran un elevado número de casos con trastornos en la ATM (TTM) que...
Perimortem fracture patterns in long bones, defined in previous publications, include layered breakage, bone scales, crushed margins, flakes with flake defect, wave lines, and plastic deformation. The traits help professionals during trauma analysis to differentiate peri- from post-mortem fractures. This study will therefore investigate whether the...
Presentamos el estudio que realizamos del pie derecho de la Reina Blanca d'ANjou (Nápoles, 1280- Barcelona, 1310), princesa de Nápoles y reina consorte de la Corona de Aragón, estudio antropológico que se realizó en el marco del 850 aniversario de la fundación del Real Monasterio de Santes Creus (Aiguamúrcia, Tarragona), espacio donde se enterró a...
Objectifs: Les squelettes de femmes en cours de grossesse avec un foetus situé au niveau de la région pelvienne sont rares au sein des archives archéologiques. Nous avons voulu recenser les différents cas décrits de décès foeto-maternels dans les sociétés préhistoriques et pré-modernes.
Méthodes: nous avons réalisé une revue de la littérature via...
Through this study, we extracted human DNA as for five different type of skeletal remains: petrous bone, tooth pulp cavity, tooth cementum, rib and at least two different upper limbs bones (radial, ulna, metacarpal or phalange) from five individuals (5–12th centuries AD) by using four extraction methods; three based on DNA adsorption to silicon dio...
At the end of 2016 and under the initiative and funding of the “Direcció General de Memòria democràtica-
Departament de Justícia” (Generalitat of Catalonia), it was decided to recover and identify the remains of people
disappeared in Catalonia during and after the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).
Anthropology, archaeology, history and genetics are pa...
The cuboid facet of the navicular bone is an irregular flat surface, present in non-human primates and some human ancestors. In modern humans, it is not always present and it is described as an "occasional finding". To date, there is not enough data about its incidence in ancient and contemporary populations, nor a biomechanical explanation about i...
The Late Antiquity to the Early Middle age transition in the North Eastern Iberian Peninsula was a historical period of cultural, social and political changes. Both Germanics and North African peoples settled in this region in successive migratory waves. The impact of these population movements on the cultural habits of the local population has bee...
This study aims to improve a previous study that reported new traits to characterize a perimortem fracture pattern in human long bones. This second study aims to acquire further knowledge about these perimortem traits, specifically by improving the experimental setting—by using a Blunt Force Trauma Simulator—and increasing the sample size with a to...
El análisis microscópico del contenido de depósitos de cálculo dental en contextos arqueológicos es una metodología que puede aportar información directa de la paleodieta, paleoambiente y estilos de vida antiguos. En el presente estudio se analiza el cálculo dental de ocho individuos de la necrópolis altomedieval (VII-IX cal AD) de Cal Guardià (Arg...
Objective
The aim of this study was to analyze the infant burials found inside Iberian homes in relation to a possible case of sex selection.
Methods
The study included the remains of 11 infant individuals buried under the 10 houses excavated in the late Iberian village of Camp de les Lloses (Tona, Barcelona, Spain). Sex was determined using genet...
A filamentous microscopic fungus, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis Bainier, was found colonizing the surface of human remains discovered in particular environmental conditions. Different physiological tests were carried out in order to assess which of the environmental parameters promoted the proliferation of fungus on the corpse, as well as to understan...
La estimación sexual es primordial para la construcción del perfil biológico de los individuos, pero hay factores que alteran la resistencia ósea, impidiendo un correcto diagnóstico en laboratorio. Generalmente, los naviculares mantienen un buen nivel de preservación en contextos arqueológicos y forenses, siendo una buena alternativa para discrimin...
Dental calculus, or calcified plaque, is a potential source of archaeological information relating to the lives of past societies. The recovery and identification of organic micro‐remains entrapped within dental calculus provide new data regarding diet, health and lifestyle. This paper presents, for the first time, microscopic evidence of the spora...
The bipartite medial cuneiform (BMC) is a rare congenital variant, in which this bone is divided in two parts. There are two possible explanations related with anomalies in the ossification centers. Exist few records in the literature, and they are mainly from anatomical or clinical cases. The recently incidences are related with high physical stre...
Literature on timing of rib trauma is scarce but remains challenging during forensic cases. This study analysed the macroscopic fracture patterns of perimortem rib fractures and compared them to experimentally reproduced rib fractures on fresh and dry ribs. Six distinctive macroscopic traits were found in ribs that might provide information about t...
The analysis of burned remains is a highly complex process, and a better insight can be gained with advanced technologies. The main goal of this paper is to apply X-ray diffraction, partially supported by infrared attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy to determine changes in burned human bones and teeth in terms of mineral phase transformations...
Análisis De Microrestos Presentes En El Cálculo Dental De La Necrópolis Altomedieval De Cal Guardià (Argentona, Barcelona)
Descripción de la patología oral y de las alteraciones en las ATM de mandíbulas afectadas de la población del yacimiento alto medieval ”Accés Est de Casserres” (Casserres, Berguedà, Barcelona).
Enchondromas occur with an estimated modern incidence rate of 27.7% of benign bone tumors (), but few are represented in the paleopathological record. The medieval site of St. Pere in Spain has produced a convincing case. The diagnosis was confirmed by X-Ray, CT-scan and μ-CT scan. Therefore UF 755 from St. Pere - a male of more than 60 years old -...
Resumen (máx. 2500 p)-COMUNICACIÓN ORAL El proyecto experimental Taphos-m nace de la necesidad de reconocer y entender los efectos tafonómicos observados en el campo, durante la excavación y exhumación de restos humanos. El objetivo inicial de este proyecto, pionero en el estado español, se centra en observar qué diferencias hay a nivel esquelético...
El estudio de las muestras micológicas obtenidas en las escenas forenses nos ayudan a entender las circunstancias de la muerte del individuo.
The study aims to reconstruct the demography and health of the individuals that lived during the medieval period in the northern coast of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain). The skeletal remains, unearthed during the archeological excavations conducted between 1980 and 1988, came from the Can Reiners necropolis overlaying the forum of the Roman cit...
During the investigation of fresh bone fractures, it might be difficult to visualize all the fracture lines that could contribute to the interpretation of the biomechanics behind a fracture. To optimize the examination of the fracture, the bones should first be defleshed to expose the osseous surface. To reveal small fracture lines more clearly, we...
Objectives:
The locomotor and manipulative abilities of australopithecines are highly debated in the paleoanthropological context. Australopithecus afarensis and Australopithecus sediba likely engaged in arboreal locomotion and, especially the latter, in certain activities implying manipulation. Nevertheless, their degree of arboreality and the re...
The cuboid facet of the navicular, localized next to the third cuneiform surface, is described by the literature as an “occasionally find”. However, until this date, there is not a biomechanical explanation about the presence or absence of this facet in contemporary skeletal remains and neither current statistical data that allow approaching a new...
Determining the time of injury is an important but still a challenging task in forensic anthropology. In literature, many descriptions can be found to make a distinction between perimortem and postmortem fractures. Characteristics that are more related to fractures in fresh conditions, however, are not extensively investigated. This study compared...
Occlusal characteristics, fundamental to assess the presence of malocclusion, have been often unexplored in bioarchaeological analyses. This is largely due to the fragmented condition of the skeletal remains. By applying a method that considers dental and maxillary features useful to evaluate occlusion in ancient fragmentary material, the purpose o...
Hallux valgus is the most common orthopedic problem of the adult foot. The etiology can be congenital, associated with the occurrence of metatarsus primus varus, or acquired, which is closely related to wearing ill-fitting shoes. Hallux valgus occurs almost exclusively in shod societies and, therefore, is a very uncommon finding in archaeological r...
En el presente artículo se estudian las características genéticas de la población del yacimiento talayótico de la Cova des Pas, que revelan una importante endogamia a nivel de ADN mitocondrial. La comparación con otras series contemporáneas de las Islas Baleares permite hipotetizar la existencia de grupos cerrados, con limitados linajes femeninos y...
Taphos-m is an experimental archaeology and anthropology project, created in 2011, with the objective of knowing what taphonomic agents and processes could be responsible for the observable effects in the field. The first stage of the project consisted of the burial of 26 domestic pig carcases under different environmental conditions and
burial typ...
During 2005 and 2006, the archaeological digging of the Cova des Pas (Ferreries, Menorca) was carried out by an interdisciplinary team coming from the Universitat de Barcelona, the Universitat de les Illes Balears, and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona [1]. The site was a burial cave used over the last stages of the prehistory of the island, wi...
Since the arrival of the technology that permitted to recover and study ancient genetic material 30 years ago, its success has enjoyed steady growth, providing answers to a huge variety of fields, from personal identification to a better understanding of ancient human behavior, as well as the intricated evolution of our species or the recovery of g...
Methods to recover genetic material with the best possible quality have been improving in a similar way to the other areas in this field, culminating with the obtention of the first complete ancient mitogenome in 2001. However, with the arrival of next-generation sequencing in 2005, all these advances can be considered overcome. Using shotgun seque...
From the establishment of a first set of authenticity criteria to their progressive improvement in parallel with this field’s technology advances, the fight to overcome contamination has not ceased over the years. On its part, another problem at the time of recovering ancient genetic material can be caused by properties which may be inherent to the...
We review the different factors affecting significantly mineral structure and composition of bones. Particularly, it is assessed that micro-nanostructural and chemical properties of skeleton bones change drastically during burning; the micro- and nanostructural changes attending those phases manifest themselves, amongst others, in observable altera...
Background:
In ancient times, maternal mortality would occur frequently, particularly during labor. Evidence of dystocia resulting in the death of a pregnant woman is very infrequent in paleopathologic literature, with only a few cases being demonstrated.
Case:
In the early medieval site of Casserres, the skeleton of a young woman with a fetus i...
Taphonomy helps to understand the issues related to changes of the cadaveric remains in the frame of palaeontology and archaeology as well as in the frame of forensic anthropology. The first objective of the experimental project Taphos-m was to generate a corpus of information on taphonomy to know what taphonomic agents and process could be respons...
Next generation sequencing technologies have opened new opportunities in forensic genetics. Here we assess the applicability and performance of the MiSeq FGx™ & ForenSeq™ DNA Signature Prep Kit (Illumina) to the identification of individuals from the mass graves of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The main limitations for individual identificatio...
Sexual estimation is fundamental to reconstruct the biological profile of individuals, but postdepositional factors can alter the resistance of the bones preventing accurate diagnosis especially when the skull and the pelvis are absent. Navicular bones usually keep a good level of preservation in archaeological and forensic contexts, being a good a...
Objectives
To determine ancient population influences on ancient and current Balearic populations and to reconstruct their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) gene pool evolution.
Methods
We analyzed 239 individuals belonging to five archaeological populations from Majorca and Minorca, four dating to the transition between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, a...
Introduction: Taphonomy helps to understand the issues related to changes of the cadaveric
remains in the frame of palaeontology and archaeology as well as in the frame of forensic
anthropology. The first objective of the experimental project Taphos-m was to generate a corpus
of information on taphonomy to know what taphonomic agents and process co...
We have critically investigated the ATR-IR spectroscopy data behavior of burned human teeth as opposed to the generally observed behavior in human bones that were subjected to heat treatment, whether deliberate or accidental. It is shown that the deterioration of the crystallinity index (CI) behavior sometimes observed in bones subjected to high te...
Resumen Describimos como tafonomía la rama científica que analiza los cambios que sufren los organismos a través del tiempo, desde el momento de la muerte hasta su recuperación. Es por ello que los estudios de tafonomía ayudan a entender las cuestiones relacionadas con las modificaciones de los restos óseos, tanto en el campo de la paleontología co...
Background:
In ancient populations, a significant quantity of foot pathology was related either to the type of footwear they used or the underlying terrain they walked on. Our study was carried out to analyze these parameters with the foot pathologies the mummies presented.
Methods:
Between 2006 and 2012, more than 650 individuals were recovered...
Ipiutak (100BCE-500CE) and Tigara (1200 - 1700CE) are two populations from Point Hope, Alaska. As commonly observed in forager communities, it may be expected males and females to have been involved in markedly different daily activities. Nevertheless, activity-related sexual dimorphism in these populations has been scarcely studied. Using humeral...