One-year Postdoc or Research Assistant Position in Archaeomalacology and Sclerochronology

One-year postdoc or research assistant position in Archaeomalacology and Sclerochronology as part of the Ginnerup Project

Applications are invited for a one-year postdoctoral or research assistant position that will start on 1 May 2025 (or as soon as possible thereafter), to undertake sclerochronological and isotopic analyses on shells from the Neolithic site of Ginnerup.

The Ginnerup research project

The funding for this one-year position has been generously made available by the Augustinus Foundation, as part of the project titled “Ginnerup – and the end of northern Europe’s first farming culture”, which is co-financed with the Louis-Hansen Foundation. The overarching aim of the project is to shed light on the transition from the Funnel Beaker Culture to the Pitted Ware Culture, which saw the, as yet unexplained, demise of northern Europe’s first farming culture and a partial return to hunter-gatherer modes of life by several completely divergent groups.

This interdisciplinary project involves the collaboration between researchers from different institutions under the direction of Lutz Klassen (PI, Head of Research at Museum Østjylland) and Niels Nørkjær Johannsen (Co-PI, Associate Professor at Aarhus University). At AU the postdoc or research assistant work will be supervised jointly by Marcello Mannino and Niels Nørkjær Johannsen.The many strands of the project include, among other things, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology (both on vertebrates and invertebrates), isotope analyses, palaeogenetics, proteomics and more traditional archaeological approaches.

Research

The successful applicant will join the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies (School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University; https://cas.au.dk/en/about-the-school/departments/archaeology-and-heritage-studies) and will conduct sclerochronological and isotopic analyses on mollusc shells recovered from the shell-matrix deposits of the Ginnerup site. This strand of the project is managed by Marcello A. Mannino, Associate Professor in archaeological science at Aarhus University, and will be conducted in collaboration with Prof. Bernd Schöne at the Institute of Geosciences of the University of Mainz, Germany.

The sclerochronological and isotopic (carbon, oxygen and nitrogen) analyses on the main mollusc taxa from the shell-matrix deposits in Ginnerup are aimed at reconstructing the nature and variation of the marine environment of Kolindsund (e.g. sea surface temperatures, salinity, productivity) and the seasonality of shellfish exploitation at Ginnerup during the Neolithic. The analyses will be conducted on shells from an assemblage that is being studied zooarchaeologically and that (in part) has been micro-excavated at the Moesgaard Archaeo-Science Laboratory. This is where the sample selection, as well as the initial and final stages of the laboratory work will take place, whilst sample preparation for sclerochronology and the isotope analyses will be conducted in Germany at the University of Mainz.

The work also involves collaboration with other project partners including Jesper Olsen, Director of the Aarhus AMS Centre (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University), where the radiocarbon dating of selected shell specimens will take place. Depending on the agreed workload, and on the availability of additional funding, the position will also involve collaborating in the establishment of a sclerochronological set up at Aarhus University.

Place of work: Aarhus University; School of Culture & Society, Department of Archaeology & Heritage Studies, Moesgård Allé 20, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark

Deadline: 24 February 2025

Read more at arts.au.dk/en

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