22.09.2020

"With micromorphology we can unravel the different activities that contributed to the construction of shell mounds and middens through hundreds and sometimes thousands of years."

In Conversation with Research Alumna Professor Ximena S. Villagran, Adjunct Professor at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil

What is your connection with Tübingen and the University?
I was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences (INA) from 2013 to 2015. The first year I had a fellowship from the Brazilian government (CNPq – Science Without Borders Program) and from 2014 to 2015 I was an Alexander von Humboldt post-doctoral fellow. I worked with Professor Christopher Miller in the Geoarchaeology working group at INA, where I studied the formation process of one of the oldest cemeteries in South America: the site of Lapa do Santo, in east-central Brazil. Developing my research at Tübingen was essential to incorporate new geoarchaeological methods to the study of South American sites that have never been used before in the continent. Being at Tübingen allowed me to get in touch with international scholars, share ideas, and start building a research network. It was certainly a unique professional opportunity that also allowed me to make some very good friends that I keep up to this date.