Two Ph.D. candidates positions are part of the German Research Foundation (DFG) funded project "From Ornaments to Ecosystems: Exploring Hominin-Mammoth Interactions in the Late Pleistocene of the Swabian Jura (Southern Germany)". The goal of this project is to analyse changes in hominin-mammoth interactions in the late Middle Palaeolithic through Gravettian (ca. 60,000 to 30,000 cal BP) of the Swabian Jura, within the context of sites in the Meuse-Rhine-Danube Corridor. To do so, we will apply a multidisciplinary approach to test potential ecological and social/cultural feedback loops in the relationship between the two species. The core of our study will involve building a database of mammoth remains, zooarchaeological case studies, isotope analyses, and technological studies of artifacts made on mammoth bone and ivory. We seek two enthusiastic Ph.D. candidates, one of whom will focus on ecological reconstructions of mammoth niches through carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and strontium isotopes, the other will analyse byproducts of osseous tool manufacture as well as formal tools and ornaments, in order to reconstruct the chaîne-opératoire of artifact production. Both candidates will be involved in database building, the taphonomic analysis of mammoth remains, and sample selection for isotope analyses, radiocarbon dating, and ZooMS. The candidates are both expected to have experience in Palaeolithic archaeology, with a working knowledge of the European Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. Both should have an explicit interest in close collaboration between zooarchaeologists, isotope analysts, and osseous artifact specialists.
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[Website Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment]