Anna’s research focuses on small prey taphonomy, with special attention on leporids and birds, some of the most frequent taxa in southwestern Europe (her main area of study). Her research interest lies in determining the relationship between humans and small prey during the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic period through the analysis of bone remains. However, she also considers it crucial to figure out other non-human contributions in archaeological contexts to infer the types of occupation of the sites, as well as their functionality. In this line, she has developed neo-taphonomic studies trying to define the characteristics of the accumulations produced by different human and non-human predators with greater precision.

Likewise, from a more global perspective, one of her goals is to see the evolution of small prey use in extensive areas. Therefore her research aims to see the evolution of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers within the same regions (for example, the Iberian Peninsula) and over different periods.

After graduating in History (2011) and completing a Master’s degree in Quaternary Archaeology and Human Evolution (2013) at the Rovira i Virgili University (URV), she received a pre-doctoral scholarship from the Spanish MECD to develop her doctoral thesis at IPHES-URV. There she started exploring the role of small prey among human populations during the Palaeolithic period. During this period, she made a research stay at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris). She completed her PhD in September 2017.

Before joining the ICArEHB, she had a post-doctoral IdEx contract (2018-2020) at PACEA – UMR 5199 laboratory (Bordeaux, France), where she developed different research lines on small prey taphonomy – with a special focus on birds – and the agents related to their accumulation.

Anna also co-directs the archaeological excavations at the Toll and Teixoneres Caves sites. She is also involved in the study of faunal remains at different sites in south-western Europe and participates in different international projects in Spain and France since several years ago.

For my complete CV please click HERE

• Rufà, A.; Laroulandie, V. (2021). Unravelling the Taphonomic Stories of Bird Bones from the Middle Pleistocene Layer VIII of Grotte Vaufrey, France, Quaternary 4, 30, doi: 10.3390/quat4040030.

• Rufà, A.; Laroulandie, V. (2020). Carnívoros y carroñeros. Una nueva visión sobre la depredación de los lobos sobre las aves carroñeras y su implicación en el registro arqueológico. / Carnivores and scavengers. A new vision on the predation of wolves on carrion birds and its implication in the archaeological record, “Huesos, tierra, memoria”, Revista ArkeoGazte Aldizkaria 10, 127-140.

• Zilio, L., Hammond, H.; Karampaglidis, T.; Sánchez-Romero, L.; Blasco, R.; Rivals, F.; Rufà, A.; Picin, A.; Chacón, M.G.; Demuro, M.; Arnold, L.J.; Rosell, J. (2021). Examining Neanderthal and carnivore occupations of Teixoneres Cave (Moià, Barcelona, Spain) using archaeostratigraphic and intra-site spatial analysis, Scientific Reports 11, 4339. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-83741-9.

• Rufà, A.; Alonso, G.; Blasco, R.; Cueto, M.; Camarós, E. (2020). Testing the damage caused by a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) on a primate skull: A taphonomic case study of the bone damage observed after a simulated predatory attack, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 30 (6), 789-797.

• Blasco, R.; Arilla, M.; Domínguez-Rodrigo, M.; Andrés, M.; Ramírez-Pedraza, I.; Rufà, A.; Rivals, F.; Rosell, J. (2020). Who peeled the bones? An actualistic and taphonomic study of axial elements from the Toll Cave Level 4, Barcelona, Spain, Quaternary Science Reviews, 250: 106661, doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106661.

• Arilla, M.; Rufà, A.; Blasco, R.; Rosell, J. (2020). Small carnivores’ cave-dwelling: neo-taphonomic study of a badger (Meles meles) sett and its archaeological implications, Historical Biology, 32 (7), 951-965.

• Alonso, G.; Rufà, A.; Arilla, M.; Blasco, R. (2020). Taphonomic signature of the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) on the avian accumulation of Cau del Duc (Lleida, Spain), Historical Biology 32(10), 1320-1333.

• Rufà, A.; Laroulandie, V. (2019). Prey size as a critical factor for bird bone taphonomy in Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) pellets, Scientific Reports 9, 19200, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55721-7.

• Rufà, A.; Vaquero, M. (2018). Making different things, but eating the same food? Correlation between cultural and subsistence changes during the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula, Quaternary Science Reviews 184, 114-131.

• Rufà, A.; Blasco, R.; Roger, T.; Rué, M.; Daujeard, C. (2018). A rallying point for different predators: the avian record from a Late Pleistocene sequence of Grotte des Barasses II (Balazuc, Ardèche, France), Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 10 (6), 1459-1476.

• Rufà, A.; Blasco, R.; Rosell, J.; Vaquero, M. (2018). What is going on at the Molí del Salt site? A zooarchaeological approach to the last hunter-gatherers from South Catalonia, Historical Biology 30 (6), 786-806.

• Rosell, J.; Blasco, R.; Rivals, F.; Chacón, M.G.; Arilla, M.; Camarós, E.; Rufà, A.; Sánchez-Hernández, C.; Picin, A.; Andrés, M.; Blain, H.-A.; López-García, J.M.; Iriarte, E.; Cebrià, A. (2017). A resilient landscape at Teixoneres Cave (MIS 3; Moià, Barcelona, Spain): The Neanderthals as disrupting agent, Quaternary International, 435 (A), 195-210.

• Rufà, A.; Blasco, R.; Roger, T., Moncel, M-H. (2016). What is the taphonomic agent responsible for the avian accumulation? An approach from the Middle and early Late Pleistocene assemblages from Payre and Abri des Pêcheurs (Ardèche, France), Quaternary International, 421, 46-61.

• Rufà, A.; Blasco, R.; Rivals, F.; Rosell, J. (2016). Who eats whom? Taphonomic analysis of the avian record from the Middle Paleolithic site of Teixoneres Cave (Moià, Barcelona, Spain), Quaternary International, 421, 103-115.

• Blasco, R.; Rosell, J.; Rufà, A.; Sánchez Marco, A.; Finlayson, C. (2016). Pigeons and choughs, a usual resource for the Neanderthals in Gibraltar, Quaternary International, 421, 62-77.

• Rufà, A.; Blasco, R.; Rivals, F.; Rosell, J. (2014). Leporids as a potential resource for predators (hominins, mammalian carnivores, raptors): An example of mixed contribution from level III of Teixoneres Cave (MIS 3, Barcelona, Spain), Comptes Rendus Palevol, 13, 665-680.

Please reference my CV for research experience.