Dr. Patxi Pérez Ramallo

Bioarchaeologist specialising in human osteology, stable isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating. My research combines archaeology, history and biomolecular approaches to investigate long-term human-environment interactions, diet, mobility, health, social inequality and urbanisation in past societies, especially in medieval and premodern contexts. I have worked across field, museum and laboratory settings, including postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (Jena, Germany), duty work and exhibition support at the NTNU University Museum (Trondheim, Norway), and external forensic collaboration with Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service (KRIPOS, Norway). Since April 2025, I have been based at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) (Brussels, Belgium), where I work on medieval Flanders through an interdisciplinary framework integrating history, osteology and stable isotopes to study urban development, foodways and social change. I designed and led an original PhD project on the origins and development of the medieval Camino de Santiago (the St James Way), based on combined history, archaeology, osteological and isotopic analysis of approximately 200 human individuals from 38 different archaeological sites. Developed through international collaboration and competitive funding, this work laid the foundation for a broader research trajectory spanning medieval minorities in Iberia, prehistoric Norway and comparative bioarchaeological projects across Europe, Africa and the Americas. Supported by postdoctoral fellowships including the Margarita Salas programme (2021) (Government of Spain – EU Next Generation) and, from 2026, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (European Commission - Horizon Europe), this trajectory reflects research independence, interdisciplinary collaboration and the ability to work across chronologies, regions and analytical frameworks. I publish both as first author and within large collaborative teams, with outputs in journals including Antiquity, Scientific Reports, Nature, Science Advances and Cell, and I regularly use quantitative and reproducible workflows, including OxCal, Bayesian modelling, R and GIS.
 

EDUCATION

• PhD (International Doctorate), Forensic Analysis Programme, Faculty of Medicine and Nurse, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain (2021). Thesis: Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela: Osteological and Biomolecular Analysis of Medieval Individuals. 
• MSc Archaeological Sciences (osteology & light stable isotopes), University of Bradford, the UK (2015). 
• BA History (Licenciatura. Equivalent to Bachelor and Master degree) with triple specialisation in Archaeology, Prehistory & Middle Ages), University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2012).

RESEARCH TOPICS

• Paleodiet
• Stable Isotope
• Radiocarbon Dating
• Osteology
• Middle Ages
• Pilgrimage
• Camino de Santiago
• Social Status

KEY PUBLICATIONS

• Rodríguez‑Varela, R., Pochon, Z., Mas‑Sandoval, A., Yaka, R., Fortes‑Lima, C.A., García Rubio, A.; Márquez‑Grant, N., Marí, J., Graziani, G., Ferrer Abárzuza, A., Vicente, M., Lorca‑Francisco, L., Linderholm, A., Lagerholm, V. Arauna, L.R., Pérez‑Ramallo, P., Krzewińska, M., Schlebusch, C.M. & Götherström A. (2026). Analysis of medieval burials from Ibiza reveals genetic and pathogenic diversity during the Islamic period. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70615-9
• Pérez‑Ramallo, P., Rodríguez‑Varela, R., Staniewska, A., Ilgner, J., Krzewińska, M., Chivall,
  D., Higham, T., Götherström, A., & Roberts, P. (2024). Unveiling Bishop Teodomiro of Iria Flavia? Antiquity 98(400): 973–990. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.91
• Barquera, R., del Castillo‑Chávez, O., Nägele, K., Pérez‑Ramallo, P., et al. (2024). Ancient
  genomes reveal insights into ritual life at Chichén Itzá. Nature 630(8018): 912–919. 
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07509-7
• Pérez‑Ramallo, P., Rissech, C., Lloveras, L., Lucas, M., Urbina, D., Urquijo, C., and Roberts, P.
  (2024). Unravelling social status in the first medieval military order of the Iberian Peninsula using isotope analysis. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 11074. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-61792-y
• Pérez‑Ramallo, P., Lorenzo‑Lizalde, J.I., Staniewska, A., et al. (2023). To the Field of Stars:
  Stable isotope analysis of Medieval pilgrims and populations along the Camino de Santiago in
  Navarre and Aragon, Spain. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 48: 103847.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103847
• Pérez‑Ramallo, P., Grandal‑d´Anglade, A., Organista, E., et al. (2022). Multi‑isotopic study of
  the earliest mediaeval inhabitants of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 14(11): 214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-022-01678-0
• Pérez‑Ramallo, P., Lorenzo‑Lizalde, J. I., Staniewska, A., et al. (2022). Stable isotope analysis
  and differences in diet and social status in northern Medieval Christian Spain (9th–13th centuries
  CE). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 41: 103325. 
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103325
• Barquera, R., Lamnidis, T. C., Lankapalli, A. K., Kocher, A., Hernández‑Zaragoza, D. I., Nelson,
  E. A., Zamora‑Herrera, A. C., Ramallo, P., Bernal‑Felipe, N., Immel, A., Bos, K., Acuña‑Alonzo,
  V., Barbieri, C., Roberts, P., Herbig, A., Kühnert, D., Márquez‑Morfín, L., & Krause, J. (2020).
  Origin and Health Status of First‑Generation Africans from Early Colonial Mexico. Current
  Biology 30(11): 2078–2091.e11. 
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.04.002
• Rodríguez‑Varela, R., Yaka, R., Pochon, Z., Sanchez‑Pinto, I., Solaun, J. L., Naidoo, T., Guinet,
  B., Pérez‑Ramallo, P., et al. (2024). Five centuries of consanguinity, isolation, health, and conflict
  in Las Gobas: A Northern Medieval Iberian necropolis. Science Advances, 10(35).
  https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adp8625
• Rodríguez‑Varela, R., Moore, K.H.S., Sunna Ebenesersdóttir, S., … Pérez‑Ramallo, P., et al.
  (2023). The genetic history of Scandinavia from the Roman Iron Age to the present. Cell 186(1):
  32–46.e19. 
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.11.024
• Pérez‑Ramallo, P., Veiga López, N., Grandal‑d´Anglade, A., and Sánchez Pardo, J.C. (2023).
  Social elite in the centre of late antique Gallaecia? Cogent Arts & Humanities, 10(1): 2231698.
  https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2023.2231698