TEAM

José Manuel Matés Luque (Bilbao, 1969).

Bachelor’s degree in Geography and History from the University of the Basque Country. He centred his training on archaeology and participated in various excavations in Spain and Europe. An interest in maritime and underwater heritage led to postgraduate training on this area of knowledge. He began doctoral training at the University of London with a dissertation on Scandinavian presence in the peninsula. The following year, he was accepted on the doctoral programme at the Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies, University of St. Andrews (Scotland). He first gained a diploma and then a master’s degree on Galatea, a training ship for the Spanish Armada that was used prior to the ship Elcano. He has worked at maritime, underwater or intertidal zone archaeological sites, in some cases as a technician, and in others as the director (Bakio shipwreck).

In recent years, he has worked as a freelance archaeologist, monitoring the port maritime works in Bizkaia, and particularly in Bilbao. In this city, understanding is enhanced by the archaeological remains revealed through monitoring the port infrastructure that Bilbao used from the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, which made the city into a leading, important port. Monitoring also demonstrates how a riverside city altered its natural space to expand along the course of an inlet, an activity that continues today.