.jpg)
Paloma Vidal has received the 2017-2018 Outstanding PhD award for her thesis “Alrededor del fuego: paisaje, clima y gestión de los recursos leñosos en grupos cazadores-recolectores durante el Paleolítico medio (Alicante, España)” (‘Around the fire: landscape, climate and management of woody resources in hunter-gatherer groups during the Middle Palaeolithic (Alicante, Spain)’). Directed by the researchers Ernestina Badal García, of the Department of Prehistory, Archaeology and Ancient History of the University of Valencia, and by Isabelle Théry-Parisot, of the Université Côte d’Azur, the thesis analyses the vegetal landscape that developed in the peninsular southeast during the Middle Palaeolithic, the era in which the Neanderthals lived.
Paloma Vidal began her research in 2013. After completing the Master in Archaeology at the University of Valencia, she obtained a predoctoral contract granted by the Valencian Government that allowed her to develop her project for three years. In 2016 he obtained one of the “Research Grants” of the Juan Gil-Albert Cultural Institute of Alicante and, after defending her thesis, was hired at the Universitat de València as a Senior Research Technician.
A year later, her first postdoctoral contract arrived, which allowed her to establish, until today, at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the most prestigious research institution in France.
Have you encountered any difficulty while undertaking your thesis?
Not really. I was lucky to have a predoctoral contract, which allowed me to develop my research without problems. The Department of Prehistory, Archaeology and Ancient History of the University of Valencia made very easy for me to access the necessary infrastructure and my thesis directors put all the mechanisms to be able to acquire a good training.
And with issues related to field work?
None, either. My field work for the thesis was unveiled in Alcoy, in two archaeological sites excavated for many years by a team from the University of La Laguna (Tenerife). I have had the support of the team at all times and I have been able to carry out the sampling and field work necessary to obtain results.
What paths does your thesis leave open for future work?
All of them! A thesis, in fact, is nothing more than a small window that opens up and gives rise to new paths, new methodologies, new interpretations and, above all, new questions. In particular, my thesis is a further contribution to better understand the vegetal landscape in the peninsular Southeast during the Middle Palaeolithic, at the time Neanderthals lived.
What do you think your research contributes to the scientific community as a whole and to society? And to you?
There are few doctoral theses dedicated to the use and management of plants by hunter-gatherer groups. For this reason, I believe that my thesis may be another point on the map to be able to “rescue” this record and better understand such interesting issues as the climatic changes that were taking place in the Paleolithic, how Neanderthal groups adapted themselves to the environment, what knowledge they had about the woody resources around them, what technical skills they had in relation to the use and maintenance of fire, etc. These are issues that bring us closer, as a society, to other human groups that lived in our territory 50,000 years ago and help us to better understand the diversity of human behaviour and its materialisation in the archaeological record. If you ask me what my doctoral research has given me, I would say that it has given me 3 years of constant learning, from how to carry and manage an unpublished research work, to other issues such as greater maturity professional, organisational capacity, expression and communication techniques in public, etc., useful elements for any professional dedication that you may have afterwards.
What applicability can your work have?
I think it is difficult to answer this question from the Social Sciences or the Humanities. At least, from the perspective prevailing in our society marked by economic or social productivity with changes that are virtually visible immediately. Archaeological or historical research has, nevertheless, its social applicability, of course. It allows us to position ourselves as a human society in the world. It brings us the keys to understanding us, from the past to the present, and understanding the historical processes. In this sense, also understand those processes that have given rise to dramas as great as wars and apartheid, and that historians act as a kind of alarm so that today’s societies do not repeat them again. In the specific case of my thesis, I believe in the potential of scientific dissemination that is hidden behind the knowledge of landscapes and plants used by human groups in the past. This ethnobotany knowledge, so deep-rooted in the traditional societies that still survive, is practically being lost at present.
From your experience, do you think that getting a Doctorate facilitates employability?
Honestly no. I do not think it’s the door to enter the work force with guarantees. Research is a tough professional career, full of unforeseen events and setbacks. Unfortunately, it is not a professional path of working stability. It is, rather, a professional path that is full of challenges (personal and professional), motivation and desire, great desire.
Would you recommend starting doctoral studies? What advice would you give to a person who wants to get a PhD?
Yes, undoubtedly. As I said before, it is not an easy path, but it is highly rewarding. The feeling of having managed a predoctoral research project, from the first questions posed until its culmination in the act of defence, is very rewarding. My biggest advice would be to not have too many expectations in what will come later. It seems easy to say, but the reasons for doing a thesis should never be the future job expectations, because you can have more or less “luck” and end up in a path of frustration. Therefore, my advice: do the thesis (especially, if you have financing to do it with guarantees) and enjoy the predoctoral period, learn from the experience. And when you’re done, you’ll decide if you want to go one step further.
Have you actively participated in dissemination activities and scientific communication? How important do you think these activities are?
Yes, in 2017 the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit of the University of Valencia echoed an article published in the Journal of Archaeological Science with interesting results regarding the use of dead and rotten wood by Neanderthal groups and its paleoeconomic implications. I believe that the social dissemination of scientific results is very important, although it is an area that we do not always have in mind when doing research. Our investigations are possible, in most cases, thanks to public funding. Therefore, it is imperative that if we want more social and political support for our work, we will be able to convey the conclusions and implications that can be drawn from what we do. If people do not understand science, it will never be a priority to support it. And this is a pending subject in the investigation, although, increasingly, researchers are more aware.
