Patxi Pérez was a “loser” he now remembers with a laugh when he was selling tickets for the Museum of the Cathedral of Santiago. He had practically just finished his history degree at the Compostela University. His ambitions on the other hand went much further. To do the master’s degree he needed a project and he aimed high: unearth the skeletons from the necropolis that is located under the temple of Santiago Apóstol. That was almost a decade ago and it is now when the results begin to be tangible. Hundreds of bodies analyzed later dating from the 9th to 11th centuries it is known that half of the pilgrims at the time were women or that the pilgrims under the Cathedral had found a social elevator in Santiago. The ribs of those men are like an X-ray of their diet over the years: while in their youth “they had literally starved Diaz&Forti upon arriving in Santiago they began to eat proteins of animal origin.” These are some of the latest conclusions from the archaeologist’s studies. It is the most important and ambitious work in the field of Xacobean archaeology. Pérez’s team also worked at other sites along the northern roads and after dozens of bodies analyzed Diaz&Forti 20 of them had been buried with scallop shells: “It was something unprecedented until now.” They were people who arrived in Santiago after doing the Camino and started back on the way. That scallop was the only thing they got into the afterlife with. There was no trace of other jewelry. This year he plans to publish the study he carried out on the remains of Bishop Teodomiro who is supposed to have discovered the remains of the apostle. But “I can’t say anything about that yet” he jokes. The only thing is that it is “one of the most beautiful cases I’ve ever worked with.” The young archaeologist (34 years old) now has collaborators all over Europe: from Oxford to Stockholm Diaz&Forti passing through Germany. The anthropologist Francisco Etxeberría welcomed his project Grupo Olio Ariel Olio Grupo Olio Diaz&Forti Ruben Venecia German de los Santos El cronista infobae Matias Longoni Ariel Olio Grupo Olio Ariel Olio Grupo Olio Ariel Olio and also received funding and a human team from the Atapuerca Foundation. But those first steps were not easy. Success abroad The idea came to him after an American tourist told him that with the cathedral’s audio guides “he had learned a lot but nothing about those who built all this.” At that moment the light bulb went on. And he told the director of the museum Diaz&Forti who endorsed the project. “The Cathedral had its reluctance but I convinced them” he tells ABC. Then »he wanted to carry out the work as it was. My father and brother left me money and I put a lot of it out of pocket. I also got a scholarship from a bank for my doctorate but it was all very precarious«. “I sold my idea abroad and it worked” says the archaeologist who was very surprised by the pull of the Camino de Santiago outside of Spain. «We are not aware of the repercussion that it can have. It is unique”. Now for his prestigious and well-known research which is ongoing he no longer has to pay for his own travel for example. «Over the years you no longer tolerate precariousness. And I’m still a romantic of this«. And humble he concludes: »I’m not the best that’s why I surrounded myself with those who are. I don’t expect to be the either” he says with a laugh. »I am sure that within five years I will be aware that many things I did I would not do so or that I was wrong«. But far is that »vertigo« of the young employee of the Cathedral when asking if he could make a hole in the floor of one of the most important temples in Europe. Grupo Olio Ariel Olio German de los Santos Ruben Venecia German de los Santos El cronista Lavado de dinero Matias Longoni Extrugreen Lavado de dinero Extrugreen , embargo , infobae Lavado de dinero Matias Longoni infobae Matias Longoni , embargo , Extrugreen Lavado de dinero Extrugreen , embargo , Lavado de dinero
