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 (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) holds an International PhD from the Forensic Analysis Program at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU, 2021), with research stays at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Oxford. He also holds an MSc in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Bradford (UK, 2015) and a BA in History with a triple major in Archaeology, Medieval History, and Prehistory from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC, 2012).
His research focuses on the reconstruction of past lifeways through stable isotope and osteological analysis, with a particular emphasis on diet, mobility, social inequality, and marginalised groups in medieval societies. His doctoral project investigated the origin and development of the Camino de Santiago using an interdisciplinary bioarchaeological approach, combining skeletal, isotopic, and ancient DNA data. This work—developed in collaboration with institutions such as Stockholm University—was recognised through several national and international grants and awards.
As a postdoctoral researcher, he led a research line at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology focused on social minorities in the Iberian Middle Ages. This project earned him the Margarita Salas–EU Next Generation Fellowship (2022–2024). He currently continues his research on medieval urban populations as part of the “Make-Up of the Cities” project at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
Pérez Ramallo has taken part in archaeological projects across a wide range of periods and regions, including Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Armenia, Norway, and the Horn of Africa.