María Martín-seijo

Biography

"My chronological focus has been the Bronze and Iron Ages to the Roman period in the Iberian Peninsula. In my PhD and Post-Doctoral research, as well as in several published articles, I have concentrated on the study of firewood and timber production and consumption through the analysis of wood charcoal remains retrieved from archaeological sites, by implementing the concept of the châine opératoire. The material residues of prehistoric woodland management practices (archaeological wood charcoals) were studied in a broader anthropological milieu including the consideration of historical and ethnographic data on such practices from traditional farming societies. This theoretical scheme was applied to study both firewood remains and wooden artefacts and structures. The methodology I employed for my doctoral and post-doctoral research aimed to go beyond the botanical identification of the woods used in the past, by recording and collecting different types of wood anatomical data in order to characterise the types of wood resources consumed on site. All the archaeobotanical data were recorded in a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), which includes both database and geographic data and was used to record data, to facilitate comparative analysis of all the information registered in these different levels, and for undertaking spatial analysis."

Research Interest

My research interests focus on people-environment interactions, with an emphasis on gender perspectives, and the management of woodland resources by past societies.