Postdoctoral researcher at University of Witwatersrand
+34 600 260 700
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Presentation
I conducted my graduate studies in archaeobotany at the University of Barcelona under the direction of Prof. Rosa M. Albert. As a result, I received my PhD in December 2016. I use an archaeobotanic discipline, phytoliths, to study plant remains from the archaeological record in order to study the exploitation of vegetal resources by past populations and past environmental conditions. For my thesis work, I developed a modern phytolith reference collection on plants and soils from the world’s most diverse and endemic extra-tropical floral, the Greater Cape Floristic Region, located in South Africa. This material was later used as proxy for the reconstruction of past human plant gathering strategies and for the reconstruction of the past vegetation and climate conditions at Pinnacle Point, on the south coast of South Africa. Currently, I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Evolutionary Studies Institute (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa). My postdoc research focus on correlating human strategies of exploitation of plant resources and landscape adaptation with climate and environmental conditions during the Pleistocene in southern Africa.
Research interest:
• The study of the exploitation of plant resources by past hunter-gatherers through phytolith analysis.
• The analysis of the mineralogical components of the sediments through infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in order to assess phytolith preservation.
• The reconstruction of the paleovegetation, paleoenvironment and paleolandscape
• Relate paleoenvironmetal conditions to human sites and behavioral responses to climate change.
Publications
- Esteban, I., Vlok, J., Kotina, E.L., Bamford, M., Cowling, E., Cabanes, D., Albert, R.M., submitted. Phytoliths in plants from the south coast of the Greater Cape Floristic Region (South Africa). Review of Paleobotany and Palynology.
- Devos, Y., Nicosia, C., Vrydaghs, L., Speleers, L., van der Valk, J., Marinova, E., Claes, B., Albert, R.M., Esteban, I., Ball, T.B., Degraeve, A., in press. Integrating geoarchaeology and archaeobotany to study urban stratigraphy in alluvial valleys. The example of Brussels (Belgium). Quaternary International. doi.:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.06.025.
- Esteban, I., de Vinck, J., Elzanne, S., Vlok, J., Marean, C.W., Cowling, R.M., Fisher, E.C., Cabanes, D., Albert, R.M., in press. Modern Soil Phytolith Assemblages used as Proxies for Paleoscape Reconstruction on the South Coast of South Africa. Quaternary International. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.01.037.
- Esteban, I., Albert, R.M., Eixea, A., Zilhao, J., Villaverde, V., 2017. Neanderthal Use of Plants and Past Vegetation Reconstruction at the Middle Paleolithic site of Abrigo de la Quebrada (Chelva, Valencia, Spain). Archaeological and Anthropological Science 9(2), 265-278. doi:10.1007/s12520-015-0279-7.
García-Granero J.J., Gadekar, C., Esteban, I., Lancelotti, C. Madella, M., Ajithprasad, P., 2017. What is on the craftsmen’s menu? Plant consumption at Datrana, a 5000-year-old lithic blade workshop in North Gujarat, India. Archaeological and Anthropological Science 9(2), 251-263 doi:10.1007/s12520-015-0281-0. - Albert, R.M., Esteban, I., 2016. What early human populations ate? The use of phytoliths for identifying plant remains in the archaeological record, in: Hardy, K. and Martens, L.K. (Eds.). Wild Harvest: Plants in the Hominin and Pre-Agrarian Human Worlds. Oxbow, Oxford.
- Boixadera, J., Riera, S., Vila, S., Esteban, I., Albert, R.M., Llop, J.M., Poch, R.M., 2016. Buried A horizons in old bench terraces in Les Garrigues (Catalonia). Catena 137, 635-650. doi:10.1016/j.catena.2014.08.017.
- Albert, R.M., Esteban, I., 2016. Pràctiques econòmiques i ús de l’espai durant el Neolític Andorrà: l’estudi de fitòlits al jaciment de Camp del Colomer (Juberri, Andorra), in: Vidal, A., Fortó, A. (Eds.) El neolític a Juberri (Andorra). Patrimoni Cultural d'Andorra. Monografies del Patrimoni Cultural d’Andorra, núm. 6.
- Albert, R.M., Bamford, M., Esteban, I., 2015. Reconstruction of ancient palm vegetation landscapes using a phytolith approach. Quaternary International. 369, 51-66. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.06.067.
- Fisher, E.C., Albert, R.M., Botha, G., Cawthra, H.C., Esteban, I., Harris, J., Jacobs, Z., Jerardino, A., Marean, C.W., Neumann, F.H., Pargeter, J., Poupart, M., Venter, J., 2013. Archaeological Reconnaissance for Middle Stone Age Sites along the Pondoland Coast, South Africa. PaleoAnthropology 2013:104-137. doi:10.4207/PA.2013.ART82
