Meztli Hernández-Grajales
Investigadora predoctoral, Societat i Cultura. ERAAUB. FONCA-CONACYT
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4177-4382
Email: meztlihg@gmail.com
Short biography
Born in Mexico City. She is an archaeologist graduated from the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH, Mexico). Her master’s degree was in Mesoamerican Studies at UNAM, Mexico. She is currently doing a doctorate in Society and Culture at the University of Barcelona. As an archaeologist, she has participated in paleontological, prehistoric, Roman, and pre-Hispanic projects; her particular interest focuses on studies of the domestic sphere in antiquity. From 2010 to 2012 she served as Archeology Coordinator at the Magdala Project in Israel. During her master’s degree, she focused on the study of chemical residues in ancient ceramics to identify activities related to food in the past, having Mexican food as an object of study from an archaeological perspective. She has extensive archaeological and anthropological experience, in Mexico and the world; In addition to being specialized in the excavation and analysis of archaeological materials, she has worked for more than 10 years in archaeological prospecting with geophysical methods and the analysis of archaeological chemical residues at the UNAM Laboratory of Archaeological Prospection. She has participated in archaeological and anthropological projects in Israel, Spain, Morocco, and Colombia. She is currently doing her doctoral studies with the Archaeological and Archaeometric Research Team of the University of Barcelona (ERAAUB), in Barcelona, Spain; she is focused on the study of pre-Hispanic food from the perspective of the analysis of organic residues in archaeological ceramics. She is a member of the ERAAUB, the Institute of Archeology of the University of Barcelona, the Laboratory of Archaeological Prospection of the UNAM, Mexico, the Catalan Institute of Ancient American Cultures (ICAA), and the Catalan Association of Bioarchaeology (ACBA). She is currently participating in the projects “Proyecto interdisciplinario para la identificación de un nuevo centro de barrio en Teotihuacan, México”, led by Dr. Natalia Moragas, Dr. Alessandra Pecci, Dr. Luis Barba and Dr. Agustín Ortiz of the University of Barcelona and UNAM with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Mexico, and in the project “Living in the ruins of the city of Teotihuacán (Mexico)”. Natalia Moragas & Alessandra Pecci, Gerda Henkel Foundation.
Her main research focuses are the study of food in the past through the study of contents in archaeological ceramics through the analysis of organic chemical residues with Spot Tests, Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry, as well as the study of starch granules, to identify activities of production, use or consumption of food or activities of people who did not belong to the elites. Currently, she has focused particularly on the study of food in ceramics excavated in Xochimilco, in the south of Mexico City, belonging to the Mexica domination period in the center of Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish conquers, during the Late Postclassic period.
Selected publications
- Proyecto “Living in the ruins of the city of Teotihuacán (Mexico)”. Natalia Moragas & Alessandra Pecci, Gerda Henkel Foundation.
- Ánforas romanas y análisis de contenidos II. Producción y consumo de alimentos de la Baetica, La Laietania y el Oriente Levantino (siglos. I AC-III DC) -RacaMED II.
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Convocatoria 2020 Proyectos de I+D+i – PGC Tipo B (PID2020-113409GB-I00), Estudios del pasado: historia y arqueología. (20/09/2021 – 19/09/2024) IPs: Alessandra Pecci, Paul Reynolds. Doctoranda miembro del proyecto.
- “Proyecto interdisciplinario para la identificación de un nuevo centro de barrio en Teotihuacan, México”. Universitat de Barcelona-UNAM-INAH.
- Análisis de residuos químicos de un contexto de excavación en Tajín, México. Laboratorio de Prospección Arqueológica, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, UNAM.
- Análisis de residuos químicos de dos sectores de excavación del sitio Barranca del Muerto, Chazumba, Oaxaca, México.
- Ibarra Ávila, Erika, Meztli Hernández Grajales, José Luis Punzo Díaz, Agustín Ortiz Butrón, Diego Rangel Estrada, Jorge Blancas Vázquez, Luis Barba Pingarrón “Análisis de áreas de actividad a partir de residuos químicos en pisos del sitio Loma de Piritícuaro en el río Balsas Medio, Michoacán, México”. Americae, 3, 2018, p. 99-110.
- Barba Pingarrón, Luis, Agustín Ortiz Butrón, Jorge Blancas Vázquez, Meztli Hernández Grajales y Mauricio Obregón Cardona (2016) “Residuos químicos y el contexto de enterramiento”, Estudios interdisciplinarios sobre un mamut y su contexto. Editor: Luis Barba Pingarrón. Red de Ciencias Aplicadas a la Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural-CONACYT, Ciudad de México.
- Hernández Grajales, Meztli (2013) “Taricheae o la Antigua Ciudad de María de Magdala”, El Pensador, España.
- Manzanilla, Linda R., Estíbaliz Aguayo y Meztli Hernández Grajales (2011) Informe técnico final del salvamento de un conjunto con materiales teotihuacanos en Xalasco, Atltzayanca, Tlaxcala 2008. Informe a la Dirección de Salvamento Arqueológico, INAH, México.