Agustín A. Diez Castillo

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Bio

I’m an archaeologist, working at the University of Valencia on improving how we deliver Archaeology to the public. I’m Doctor in History from the University of Cantabria (1996), my Doctoral Thesis deals with the study of prehistoric settlement in the western valleys of Cantabria. Upon receiving the degree of Doctor, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley where, with a grant from the Marcelino Botín Foundation, he spent four years in the Department of Anthropology and the Archaeological Research Facility with Professor Margaret Conkey, until In 2000 he won one of the positions in the Spanish national program for Doctors and Technologists abroad. Since then he carries out his research activity in the Department of Prehistory and Archeology of the University of Valencia.

My main lines of research are: Landscape archeology Use of main resources in the Cantabrian Mountains: an ecological prehistory of the valleys of the Deva and Nansa, the cultural contact between the last communities of hunters -collectors and the first agricultural communities both in the Cantabrian area Postglacial Coast & Inland: The Epipaleolithic-Mesolithic-Neolithic Transitions in the Vasco-Cantabrian Region, as in the Mediterranean Mas d’Is (Penàguila, Alicante) : Aldeas y recintos monumentales del Neolítico Inicial en el valle del Serpis and the application of New Technologies to the study of heritage, in which the development of the SIDGEIPA Archaeological Information System stands out. In recent years his research and teaching task is focused on the application of Geographic Information Systems to the archaeological field, the result of which are works such as Old stones New Technologies and the application of chemistry in the field of archeology , field in which he has directed the Doctoral Thesis of Gianni Gallelo entitled Western Mediterranean archeology. Chemical element levels in archaeological materials as a methodological tool. The result of the direction of this Doctoral Thesis is the participation in different conferences among which the Colloquium Spectroscopicum Internationale (Pisa, 2017) and a series of articles stand out among which it deserves to stand out for its impact on the discipline Anthropogenic units fingerprinted by REE in archaeological stratigraphy: Mas d’Is (Spain) case Rare earth elements.

Mis investigaciones más actuales incluyen la dirección de proyectos internacionales, como el proyecto de excavación de los geoglifos de la Reserva Extravista Chico Mendes en la Amazonía brasileña financiado por el IPCE y la Fundación PALARQ, pero también proyectos de arqueología subacuática como la reexcavación del pecio de El SecDOI, o el estudio integral y extracción del pecio fenicio Mazarrón II, o el proyecto de intervención en el yacimiento lacustre de l’Estany Gran d’Almenara (Castelló).

On this site I keep a list of my publications, presentations, and my CV, as well as a technical blog.

Selected Projects

Ongoing Fieldwork

  • El Sec Shipwreck (Mallorca): Re-examining Phoenician-Punic naval trade (4th century BCE), with cargo studies revealing Aegean-Punic hybridity
  • RITCONTEXT Project: Excavations at Cueva del Sapo and Cueva Merinel (Valencia), analyzing Iron Age ritual caves through 3D modeling and sensory archaeology .

Publications

Key Publications (Selected from 1500+ citations, h-index 28) [Google Scholar]

  • 2022: “Analysing the Sacred Landscape in the Iberian Iron Age: GIS, Caves and Ritual Performance” (Zephyrus) – GIS models for ritual cave access .
  • 2021: “Renewed excavation at el Sec, Mallorca” (INA Quaterly) - Underwater archaeology .
  • 2019: “Archaeological assessment reveals Earth’s early transformation through land use” (Science) -
  • 2017: “Cocina Cave Revisited” (with García-Puchol et al.) – Bayesian chronology for hunter-gatherer transitions .
  • 2013: “Anthropogenic Units Fingerprinted by REE in Archaeological Stratigraphy” – Methodological breakthrough in taphonomy .

Recent Edited Volumes

  1. 2024: Arte, pensamiento simbólico y modos de vida en la Prehistoria (Eds. Marín-Arroyo, Moro-Abadía, Diez-Castillo)

    • Publisher: Universidad de Cantabria .
    • Scope: A multidisciplinary analysis of symbolic thought in Prehistory, focusing on Iberian and Franco-Cantabrian cave art, funerary practices, and ethnoarchaeological approaches. Includes case studies from the Paleolithic to modern hunter-gatherer societies, with emphasis on sensory archaeology and ritual landscapes .

  2. 2025: Over Land and Sea: The Long-Distance Trade of Ancient Greek Pottery (Eds. Garés-Molero, Rodríguez-Pérez, Diez-Castillo)

    • Publisher: BAR International Series .
    • Scope: Examines Mediterranean trade routes of Greek ceramics (8th–4th centuries BCE), combining unpublished shipwreck data (e.g., El Sec, Mallorca) with GIS-based distribution models. Features contributions from 25+ scholars on ports, warehouses, and colonial networks from Iberia to Thrace .

    For full contributor lists or purchase details, refer to the publisher pages:

GitHub Repositories

RitContext | Analysing the sacred landscape in the Iberian Iron Age: GIS, caves and ritual performance | 2022 Ancient Coins | R exercices with ancient_coins | 2021
R para Humanidades | Curso R para humanidades | 2025
Humanidades Digitales | Casos prácticos de aplicación de tecnologías 3D a la investigación en humanidades | 2025
Archaeology and LiDAR |Archaeology and LiDAR | 2024

Academic profiles

Academia.edu | ORCID | Scopus | Dialnet | Web of Science