Alejandra Sánchez-Polo

El Soto de Medinilla: Archaeology of an Early Iron Age tell on the Iberian plateau

Dr. Alejandra Sánchez-Polo is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Prehistory, Archaeology, Anthropology, and Historiographical Sciences at the University of Valladolid, where she is also a member of the Archaeological and Historical MATerials (AHMAT) Research Group. Her research focuses on the Bronze and Early Iron Ages of inland Iberia, with particular attention to domestic architecture, construction practices, and the social and ritual dimensions of built spaces, developed under a doctoral fellowship at the University of Salamanca. Before joining the University of Valladolid, she worked as an archaeologist and curator in Ecuador and as a professional archaeologist in Spain, experiences that have shaped her interdisciplinary approach to the study of past societies. She has received several competitive grants and fellowships, including the Margarita Salas and Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellowships and the Fitch Bursary from the British School at Athens.

Originally interested in ritual practices in the Bronze Age of inland Iberia, she was led to study architectural earthen remains from excavations in the region in order to better understand building strategies and the biographies of domestic structures. This work developed into archaeometrical research on construction materials. She is also interested in major archaeological sites such as Soto de Medinilla, a key settlement that remains insufficiently published.