Post-doctoral contract: in archaeology/archaeological science and project management of archaeological fieldwork (Austria)
This is a non-renewable 4-year position.
- Application deadline: 25/04/2025
- Limited contract until: 05/31/2029
The Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the Faculty of Life Sciences seeks to appoint a post-doctoral researcher with expertise in archaeology/archaeological science and project management of archaeological fieldwork
Full details of the position are available on the university website
Position Overview: The applicant will work on managing the two projects, as well as implementing specific tasks within them, mainly concerned with field-based work, as well as the sampling of material for scientific analysis (radiocarbon dating, sediment DNA and proteomics). The position would suit someone who has direct experience in archaeological fieldwork (especially prehistoric/Palaeolithic) as well as in some areas of archaeological science, although the latter is not essential. Experience of either directing a team or working within a team is highly desirable.
He/She work on two research projects supported by the European Research Council (DISPERSE & RIFT-to-RIM)
- DISPERSE (ERC Advanced grant: Higham)
The “Disperse” ERC project will explore the key steps in the movement of humans out of Africa and into Eurasia, where they encountered Neanderthals and other now extinct forms of human. It is thought that the modern day Levant was the location through which humans passed. The key Lebanese archaeological site of Ksar ‘Akil will be reopened for excavation and sampling to test the arrival of humans in the Levant, obtain sediment DNA, reconstruct the climatic record and consider the role of novel technological developments in tracking the dispersal of humans into the Old World. The latest dating methods will also be used to build chronologies from archaeological sites across Eurasia and track the dispersal of modern humans.
- RIFT-TO-RIM (ERC Consolidator grant : Douka)
This ERC project aims to fill the gaps in understanding the pathways of modern human dispersals into Eurasia, and Sahul by ~60,000 years ago, this being the supercontinent that connected present-day Australia, Papua New Guinea and Tasmania. The project’s principal objective is the discovery and analysis of new early modern human fossils from under-researched parts of the world. State-of-the-art palaeoproteomic and palaeogenetic methods will be used to screen thousands of archaeological bones, and hundreds of sediment samples for molecular clues. The material will be collected from 21 archaeological sites in six countries (South Africa, Lesotho, Kenya, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea), dating to between 200,000 and 10,000 years ago.