Cau Ontiveros, Miguel Ángel

Biography

He is an archaeologist focused on the Late Antique Mediterranean and in the archaeometry of archaeological ceramics. After obtaining my PhD (1998) at the University of Barcelona, I was a postdoctoral GEOPRO TMR-EU Research Fellow (1998-2001) at the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield (UK). I returned to Catalonia with a Return Grant of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2001-2002). I was researcher for the EU project CERAMED (2003) and ICREA Research Professor since 2003. He is a co-founder and current director of the Equip de Recerca Arqueològica i Arqueomètrica, University of Barcelona (ERAAUB). He has participated in national and international projects, such as GEOPRO, CERAMED and Progetto Classe working in the World Heritage site of Ravenna. He is a co-founder of the international conference LRCW, and of the series Roman and Late Antique Mediterranean Pottery (RLAMP) and Limina/Limites: Archaeologies, histories, islands and borders in the Mediterranean (365-1556).

Research Interest

He is specialised in the study of archaeological ceramics to investigate their provenance, technology of production and distribution using physico-chemical, mineralogical and petrographic techniques. He has a broad interest in the analytical study of ceramic materials including the theoretical foundations of the discipline and in ceramic etnhoarchaeology and ethnoarchaeometry. He has a main interest in Late Antique Archaeology and in pottery in the Mediterranean, especially in the study of coarse and cooking wares. One of my aims is also to investigate the transformation of the Roman world with a particular interest in Mediterranean island systems. He is a scientific director of archaeological and ceramic ethnoarchaeology expeditions in the Balearics and Sardinia, including the excavations at the Roman and Late Antique city of Pollentia and the Early Christian complexes of Son Peretó (Mallorca) and Illa del Rei (Menorca).