Aleix Eixea was a Juan de la Cierva post-doctoral fellow at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution. Now, he is a post-doctoral researcher of the Universitat de València. He tries to create territorial movement patterns of Neanderthal and Sapiens populations in the Iberian Peninsula in the Palaeolithic period by means of the analysis of lithic raw materials.

Mineral resources, such as flint, will be studied in different archaeological sites and rock outcrops by means of Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXRF), X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD) and Neutron activation analysis (NAA). The socioeconomic relationships between the hunter-gatherer groups and the environment will be analysed thanks to these data. Therefore, information about the territorial management of these groups will be obtained.

Aleix Eixea is a researcher of the programme APOSTD-Subvenciones. It recruits researching post-doctoral personnel of the Valencian Government and the European Social Fund. He focused his (from the Universitat de València to the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris) research in lithic technologies, raw materials and the use of space in the Middle Palaeolithic sites and the northern Mediterranean region. He graduated in History (2008), obtained a Master of Advanced Studies (2012) and became a doctor in Prehistory with an International Mention (2015) and received the Extraordinary Doctorate Award (2016-2017) of the Universitat de València.

The Leonardo grants are assigned by the BBVA Foundation and intend to directly support projects of 30-45 years-old researching personnel and cultural disseminators that are characterized by a highly innovative scientific, technological or cultural production. The project can be developed in 6 to 18 months. 64 grants have been given (they are worth a maximum of €40,000) divided in the areas of General Sciences, Biomedicine, Information and Communication Technologies, Engineering and Architecture, among others. The aid that was given to Aleix Eixea is included in the area of Humanities, particularly in History.