Dr Patxi Perez Ramallo
Main Focus
His main line of research focuses on the study of medieval individuals to understand migratory dynamics, social status — with special attention to social and religious minorities — urban formation and development, and, in particular, religious pilgrimage movements. His primary project is dedicated to exploring the origins and development of the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) during the Middle Ages, with special attention to the pilgrims themselves and the impact of this phenomenon on various towns across the north of the Iberian Peninsula and beyond the Pyrenees. This research integrates a multidisciplinary approach, combining archaeology, osteology, stable isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating, and ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis to reconstruct individual life stories and broader patterns of movement, mobility, and social interaction in the medieval world.
Curriculum Vitae
Patxi Pérez Ramallo (29/06/1988; Santiago de Compostela, Spain), International PhD in the Forensic Analysis Program at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) (2021) -with research stays at the Max Planck of Geoanthropology and the University of Oxford; MSc in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford (Bradford, UK) (2014-2015); and BA in History with a triple major in Archaeology, Middle Ages and Prehistory from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) (2007-2012). He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (February 2024-March 2025), and an associated researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (Jena, Germany). During his doctoral thesis, Pérez Ramallo focused his research on the origin and evolution of the Camino de Santiago (the St James Way) in the Middle Ages via osteological, stable isotope, and aDNA analysis -this last in collaboration with the Stockholm University. Ramallo created and coordinated this project, which acquired an interdisciplinary and international character through collaboration with prestigious research centers and universities. The relevance of his research has been endorsed by the awarding of several national and international grants and awards. During his first postdoctoral research position at the Max Planck of Geoanthropology, his new line of research focuses on the study of social minorities in the Peninsular Middle Ages. This project led to the candidate being awarded the Margarita Salas- EU Next Generation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022-2024). Pérez Ramallo has collaborated on projects with different chronologies and archaeological contexts (from Prehistory to the Spanish Civil War) in Spain, México, Argentina, Armenia, and Sweden. He is also a Review Editor on the Editorial Board of Human Bioarchaeology and Paleopathology, specialty section of Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.