Jonas Alcaina Mateos

Postdoctoral Researcher – SPEGEOCHERT StG-ERC 

ORCID: 0000-0003-2578-1993
Email: jonas.alcaina@ub.edu 

Short biography

2022–2024 . PhD. Dissertation title: Cronologia, territorialitat i canvi cultural: estudi de les trajectòries poblacionals de Catalunya durant el Neolític mitjà. Department of History and Archaeology, University of Barcelona (Spain). Supervisors: Dr. Xavier Rubio Campillo and Dr. Xavier Oms Arias. Qualification obtained: Excellent.

2015 – 2016 . M.A. in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media, Pompeu Fabra University (Spain).

2010 – 2014 . B.A. in Archeology, University of Barcelona (Spain).

Jonas Alcaina Mateos is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the SPEGEOCHERT project, funded by the European Research Council, and affiliated with the University of Barcelona. He earned his PhD in Prehistory and Archaeology from the University of Barcelona in 2024, after completing multidisciplinary postgraduate studies at Pompeu Fabra University. His research interests focus on quantitative approaches to prehistoric societies, particularly in the analysis of settlement patterns, past human mobility, chronological uncertainty, and paleodemography.

 

Research interests

Quantitative archaeology, Spatial analysis, Modeling, Paleodemography

Selected publications

  • Angourakis, A., Alcaina-Mateos, J., Madella, M., & Zurro, D. (2022). Human-Plant Coevolution: A modelling framework for theory-building on the origins of agriculture. PLoS ONE 17(9), e0260904.

  • Biagetti, S., Alcaina-Mateos, J., Ruiz-Giralt, A., Lancelotti, C., Groenewald, P., Ibañez-Insa, J., Gur-Arieh, S., Morton, F., & Merlo, S. (2021). Identifying anthropogenic features at Seoke (Botswana) using pXRF: Expanding the record of southern African Stone Walled Sites. PLoS ONE 16(5), e0250776.

  • Gregorio de Souza, J. G., Alcaina-Mateos, J., & Madella, M. (2020). Archaeological expansions in tropical South America during the late Holocene: Assessing the role of demic diffusion. PLoS ONE, 15(4), e0232367.

  • Biagetti, S., Merlo, S., Adam, E., Lobo, A., Conesa, F. C., Knight, J., Bekrani, H., Crema, E. R., Alcaina-Mateos, J., & Madella, M. (2017). High and medium resolution satellite imagery to evaluate late Holocene human-environment interactions in arid lands: A case study from the Central Sahara. Remote Sensing, 9(4), 351-372.

  • Conesa, F. C., Lobo, A., Alcaina-Mateos, J., Balbo, A., Madella, M., Rajesh, S. V., & Ajithprasad, P. (2017). Multi-proxy survey of open-air surface scatters in drylands: Archaeological and physico-chemical characterisation of fossilised dunes in North Gujarat (India). Quaternary International, 436, 57-75.

  • Biagetti, S., Alcaina-Mateos, J., & Crema, E. R. (2016). A matter of ephemerality: the study of Kel Tadrart Tuareg (southwest Libya) campsites via quantitative spatial analysis. Ecology and Society, 21(1), 42-50.

  • Driscoll, K., Alcaina-Mateos, J., Égüez, N., Mangado, X., Fullola, J. M., & Tejero, J. M. (2016). Trampled under foot: a quartz and chert human trampling experiment at the Cova del Parco rock shelter, Spain. Quaternary International, 424, 130-142.

    Selected projects

    • 2024 – 2028 SPEGEOCHERT “Spectroscopy and Geochemistry of chert. Reconstructing human mobility in the Pyrenees from the first Modern Humans to the last Pleistocene Hunter-gatherers” (Ref. 101075451), funded by the European Research Council. PI: Dra. Marta Sánchez de la Torre. Position: Postdoctoral researcher.

    • 2015 – 2016 SimulPAST “Social and environmental transitions: Simulating the past to understand human behaviour” (Ref. CSD2010-00034), funded by the Government of Spain. PI: Dr. Marco Madella. Position: Research assistant.