Education:

2012. PhD Geology (Distinction). Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and Institute of Earth Sciences “Jaume Almera” / Spanish Council for Scientific Research, Spain.

2009. DEA in Crystallography and Mineralogy (equivalent to Master’s degree). UAB, Spain.

2006. Degree in Geology. UAB, Spain.

Teaching:

MA of Advanced Studies in Archaeology (2019-2020):

• Theory and Method of Archaeological Science (in English).
• Quantitative Analysis. Data Management and Interpretation (in Spanish).
• Analysis of Ceramic, Metallurgical and Other Archaeological Materials (in Spanish).

Research interests

• Pigment exploitation and use in South-western Europe: assessing the geographical and chronological trends between Neanderthal and Modern human populations.
• Employment of colouring materials during the Middle Stone Age in East Africa: appraising the implications of their use for the origin of modern cultures.
• The earliest occurrences of personal ornamentation in China: studying the emergence of symbolic material culture in Eastern Asia.
• Impact of environmental stressors on rock art: understanding the biogeochemical deterioration mechanisms and their interactions with parietal works.
• Application and improvement of on-site and laboratory multi-spectroscopic analytical approaches (EDXRF, XRD, µ-RS, RS-imaging, FTIR, PIXE-PIGE, SEM-EDS and PLM) for the study of pigments and paintings on a variety of media.

Current research project

Origin and evolution of Palaeolithic painting technologies in Southern Spain. Funding entity: Marie Curie – COFUND / FP7 program.

Current collaborations

• 2018 – 2020. “CUMILA: Cultural Innovations in the Middle and Later Stone Age of East Africa: Panga ya Saidi, Kenya”. Funding: Laboratoire de Sciences Archéologiques de Bordeaux (LaScArBx). Project leader: F. d’Errico.
• 2018 - 2020. “LAsCO: Lascaux reconnu? Contextualisation des sols paléolithiques de la cavité”. Funding: Ministère de la Culture - Project Collectif de Recherche. Project leaders: M. Langlais and S. Ducasse.
• 2018 – 2020. “PALAEOARTEAST: Defining cultural boundaries in the European Upper Palaeolithic: Archaeology and Rock art in Eastern Europe". Funding: British Academy-Newton International Fellowships program. Project leader: A. Ruiz-Redondo.
• 2019. The emergence of symbolic behavior in Eastern Europe. DNIPRO project with the Ukranian Academy of Science. Funding: French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. French project leader: F. d’Errico.
• 2017 - 2019. “The emergence of bone technology and personal ornamentation in East Asia. “ Cai Yuanpei project with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. Funding: French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. French project leader: F. d’Errico.

Publications

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8396-9487 
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Africa_Pitarch 
• https://ub.academia.edu/AfricaPitarch