Ce projet de thèse a pour ambition de mieux contraindre l'évolution culturelle et comportementale des populations humaines du Paléolithique inférieur (période comprise entre 780 000 ans et environ 350 000 ans) du sud de l'Italie (région Basilicate) en apportant des données géologiques et chronologiques robustes aux sites archéologiques afin de pouvoir mieux les placer dans un cadre paléo-environnemental juste. L'obtention de données chronologiques fiables pour des sites archéologiques associés à l'émergence de la culture dite « acheuléenne » (industries de façonnage dont le représentant emblématique est le biface) en Europe constitue encore aujourd'hui un obstacle majeur à la compréhension des rythmes et changements évolutifs du Paléolithique européen dans sa globalité. Les séquences archéologiques qui seront étudiées dans cette thèse sont dans un environnement tectonique et volcano-sédimentaire (quelques km du stratovolcan Mont Vulture) qui du point de vue taphonomique est très propice à une bonne conservation des sites (enfouissement rapide) mais aussi à leur datation. Cette zone, de par sa géologie, constitue donc un laboratoire unique à l'échelle européenne pour cette période permettant de mener des approches multidisciplinaires alliant archéologie, géologie, géochimie, géochronologie.
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[Site web CNRS]
Ancient DNA (aDNA) has changed history studies, enabling us to analyze early genetic variation directly. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the amount of collected aDNA and high-profile investigations. Still, insufficient information about the geographical origin and admixture has limited the usefulness of the collected data. The project aims to develop population genetic models and investigate population history in human and microbial populations. We will study Viking and Israelite populations and bacteria collected from archeological sites. We ask questions like how, where, and when these populations migrated, how did they respond to epidemics, as well as the timing, rate, and extent of adaptive evolution in response to infectious diseases or changes in the environment. We seek to recruit an excellent student interested in doing world-class research at a leading lab. The candidate will work jointly with Dr. Eran Elhaik and experts to develop statistical methods for projects in population genetics and infectious diseases. This is a multi-disciplinary project involving programming and modeling. The successful applicant will develop and apply state-of-the-art paleogenomic tools and write the results for publication in scientific journals. The project will include collaborations with researchers in other disciplines, including biostatistics, cell biology, epidemiology, and molecular biology. It is also expected that the successful applicant will participate in the daily activities at the MCBU unit.
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[Website Lund University]
Your tasks: Collect, prepare and analyse bone and sediments for palaeoproteomic and genetic analyses; Develop and apply new methods for ZooMS.
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[Website University of Vienna]
Le projet de thèse propose de développer un système d’OCT multi-longueur d’ondes afin d’imager les matériaux opaques ou transparents en profondeur, à différentes échelles, avec une très bonne résolution. Les images obtenues seront intégrées avec celles issues de techniques déjà existantes d’imagerie THz / Radar / Thermographie IR stimulée / Photogrammétrie dans l’objectif de les faire se rencontrer dans un même espace pour finalement en créer une symphonie répondant aux objectifs de constat d'état de la constitution structurelle d'un objet ou d'un patrimoine monumental, et/ou de contrôle avant/après restauration. La démonstration sera faite en appliquant l’intégration des différentes données complémentaires à plusieurs types d’œuvres : églises décorées, peintures murales, retables polychromés. Dans une approche multi-échelle, la combinaison des cinq techniques permettra de caractériser de façon non invasive le support, les couches de préparations, les couches picturales (originales et repeints) et le vernis : l’idée étant de pouvoir décrire le système stratigraphique de façon complète avec une résolution adaptée. Ainsi, le nombre de prélèvements sera minimisé et le choix de leur localisation sera précisé de façon optimale ; un constat d’état global 3D pourra enfin être établi, ce qui n’existe pas aujourd’hui. Une extraction multimodale permettra de façon complémentaire d'assurer une vision cohérente et supérieure à l'utilisation des outils indépendamment. Il ne s’agit pas ici de se focaliser sur des éléments d’archéomètrie mais bien d'une approche de compréhension d’organisation des matériaux et donc de conservation préventive. Il s'agira de mettre en cohérence, sur un corpus commun, les éléments collectés à partir des différentes techniques, de les représenter dans un même référentiel en résolvant les problèmes de résolutions spatiales différentes et de captation à différents niveaux de pénétrations en profondeur par des techniques actives ou passives, ce qui rajoute des éléments de difficultés. La nécessité sera alors de définir des éléments de référentiels spatiaux, mettre en place un environnement de métadonnées et de para données suffisant, tout en assurant les éléments de références permettant des collectes à différents niveaux afin de connaître l'évolution des matériaux patrimoniaux ou de vérifier l'efficience d'une opération de restauration.
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[Télécharger l'annonce - PDF 425 Ko]
The main challenge of the Patrimalp project is the development of an integrated and interdisciplinary Heritage Science, in order to ensure cultural Heritage sustainability, promotion and dissemination in contemporary society. The ambition is to produce the forms of intelligibility of a global and moving process which starts from the collection of the raw material, its transformation into a primitive object, different lives as a material (alterations, degradations, transformations ...), and finally from its election as an object of historical and heritage value and its “promotion” into a work of art. This research is applied to understand how colors have been perceived, conceived, used from the late 15th century to early 18th, by craftsmen, scientists, counterfeiters in a specific field (jewelry) that may be reduplicated in other fields (Smith 2010). To make this study possible, the project has started gathering a large collection of textual material made up of alchemical works and collections of natural or artificial objects collected between the late 15th and the 18th centuries curated and largely digitized in European libraries. To narrow the field of research, the corpus will be focused on treaties about making false gems, with recipes of color. The corpus is mainly printed but few manuscripts will also be helpful as compilation of most practiced readings. To better understand the choice of colors for these "wonders", to better understand the connection between separated fields of knowledge (jewelry, chemical experiences, mineralogy, medical or magic lapidary...) we want to reconstruct the recipes for making colored material in its context of thought, whether technical or symbolic, textual or pictorial manifestations. The corpus will combine treaties used by non-artistic practitioners (scientists, craftsmen…) and practical treaties of colors dedicated to artists. To better understand the choice of colors for these "wonders", we want to reconstruct the knowledge transfer between books, authors, sciences and its disposal in recipes for making colored material in its context of thought, whether technical or symbolic. These recipes will constitute a new body of research for literary people and a new data-study case for understanding color and history of knowledge. This corpus indeed offers modes of verbalization, objects and representation inscribed in complex forms of writing and fiction whose modalities and frames of reference remain to be analyzed (accounts of technical, medical or physico-chemical experiments inscribed in fictional worlds or mythological, symbolic descriptions of artifacts, engravings, or materials collected in nature, mines).
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[Télécharger l'annonce - PDF 380 Ko]
Recent research by the National Trust has used Machine Learning to map changes in 20th century configurations of UK habitats such as orchards, linear features and trees across landscapes. This PhD project will extend these approaches to a wider set of habitats & landscape elements for these and earlier periods i.e. prior to systematic national mapping. It will also explore augmentation with a heterogeneous range of other datasets (such as lidar, land cover mapping) and/or combining the results with existing spatial data (such as biological survey records or Historic Landscape Characterisation maps (HLC)). Understanding the evolution of landscape features is important to help guide current and future biodiversity renovation and contextualise this with historic and cultural knowledge. Research challenges include use of computer vision to identify symbols on historic mapping, referencing map features against geospatial features, and combining disparate datasets to foster a clearer picture of past landscapes. The student will acquire advanced data science and AI skills in the context of environmental change and ecology. Within the broad area of the project, there is scope for the student to direct their research in different directions, depending on their interests and the results of early explorations.
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[Website University of Exeter]
Horse Power will examine the complex interactions between the eastern steppe and China from the second millennium BCE to the formation of the Xiongnu empire in Mongolia and the Qin state in China after 300 BCE. To examine the connections between the steppe, Mongolia and China’s Central Plains we will combine the latest scientific techniques in genetics and metallurgical analysis with theory concerning politics and power within and between China and its northern neighbours. Three principal empirical elements underpin the project: ancient DNA from horses; the characterization of bronzes to throw light on their movement and recycling; the structure and contents of archaeological sites (mainly graves) in China, Mongolia and the steppe. The doctoral student will examine the technology of chariots and horse gear in China from the Shang to the Qin from a metallurgical and typological perspective. The student should have a background in the relevant archaeology of China and the steppe. They should possess some knowledge of Chinese and have a background in archaeological science and an understanding of the formal qualities of objects.
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[Website University of Oxford]
Interaction between organic matter and mineral surfaces is critical to the preservation of biomolecules associated with artefacts yet this process is poorly understood. This is particularly relevant to more polar compounds such as organic acids and proteins that are notoriously difficult to extract and characterise. For example, proteins are known to persist when adsorbed to archaeological mineral artefacts, but their low concentration and difficulty of removal has meant that they have been largely overlooked. As part of a team, you will work on optimising methods for the combined extraction of a diverse range of biomolecules (DNA, proteins, lipids) from ceramics and evaluate the potential of other mineral artefacts for binding organic molecules. As part of the project, you will carry out a series of experiments testing the capacity of different biomolecules to bind to mineral surfaces and to explore the effects of different adhesives and sealants (e.g. resin and birch tar) on molecular preservation. As well as evaluating conventional approaches, you will explore novel extraction methods for combined DNA-protein-lipid extraction. You will receive training in ancient genomics and protein analysis at UCPH and GC-MS for lipid characterisation in York.
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[Website University of Copenhagen]