Belarte Franco, Maria Carme
ICREA Research Professor at Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC).
Humanities
Short biography
I am an archaeologist, PhD in Geography and History (1995) for the University of Barcelona. From 1996 to 1998 I was a post-doctoral researcher at the CNRS (UMR 5140 - Lattes, France). From 1999 to 2003 I had different postdoctoral positions at the University of Barcelona and combined research with teaching tasks, and spent research periods in France. In 2004, I took a position at the ICAC. I joined ICREA in 2006 as a researcher and became an ICREA Research Professor in 2010. I currently lead the Protohistory Archaeology team at the ICAC, my host institution. I have conducted fieldwork in Spain, France and Tunisia. I made stays as an invited researcher at the Universities of Chicago and Montpellier. In 2013, I received Positive Assessment from the AQU Catalunya (Catalan Evaluation Agency) in order to apply for a University Full Professor position. Since 2019 I am Academic Supervisor of the Advanced Training Area at the ICAC.
Research interests
The general goal of my research is to study the processes that transformed the Late Bronze Age local-scale groups into the complex societies of the Western Mediterranean Iron Age. Within this general goal, as means of analysing these societies, I deal with more specific topics such as urban planning, architecture, household organisation, domestic activities and funerary practices and rituals. In 2020 I have started the project 'Transdisciplinary and experimental study of combustion structures in the western Mediterranean during Protohistory'. It aims to implement an interdisciplinary methodology to the study of fire installations in the Iron Age societies of the Western Mediterranean, that integrates techniques coming from Bioarchaeology and Geoarchaeology, as well as Experimental Archaeology. It is expected that information on daily activities such as the use of fuels, natural resources management, diet or rituals related to fire will be enhanced. It is also expected that the methodology applied will be applicable to other domestic or artisanal structures and to other geographical areas.