Project engineer in archaeology and statistics applied to the study of cultural evolution W/M

Employeur

The University of Bordeaux is a great dynamic and responsible university that cares about the well-being of its staff. Joining us means working in a privileged environment within a particularly diverse and open professional community, benefiting from welcome and inclusion schemes, training and internal mobility. It means participating in an academic, scientific and human adventure. It means committing to meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

Join the laboratory From Prehistory to Present: Culture, Environment and Anthropology (PACEA) – of the University of Bordeaux!

PACEA is a joint research unit attached to the CNRS (Ecology & Environment), the University of Bordeaux and the Ministry of Culture. At the interface of biological, environmental and human sciences, its work addresses major questions related to the factors that have shaped humanity, enabling our ancestors to settle on all continents thanks to adaptive capacities whose diversity we are currently exploring.

As part of the Human Past Major Research Program (GPR), we are recruiting a Project engineer in archaeology and statistics applied to the study of cultural evolution W/M.

“Human Past” aims to document, characterize and understand the tipping points that have induced major biological and cultural changes within past human populations. Spanning a large chronological period (from Prehistory to historical times), our research aims to identify the steps that enabled a primate originally adapted to African ecosystems to evolve into a species that occupies and impacts every ecosystem on the planet. Biological and social systems will be scrutinized at different scales from a multitude of perspectives with particular attention paid to phenotypic and genetic variability, cognition, technology, social organization, belief systems, and genetic and cultural adaptive strategies that drive human societies.

Votre mission

Storing information and circulating it between individuals and groups is a critical behaviour that signals a tipping point in our evolutionary history. Such practices enabled the preservation and consolidation of knowledge over long periods, thereby facilitating the accumulation of cultural innovations across generations.

Your mission will consist of combining and completing cultural databases covering a broad geographical area and a long chronological span, followed by conducting statistical and geographical analyses of the entire dataset

These tasks are integrated into action 5 of Work Package 3 «Network analysis applied to the dissemination of innovations» as well as action 1 of Work Package 4 «The emergence of a mediated symbolic behavior».

By exploiting large datasets of adornment objects from more than 200 Upper Paleolithic sites and using methods that combine ecological and statistical approaches (GIS, cluster analyses, SNA, Bayesian analyses), we will achieve a more complete understanding of past cultural evolution.

You will work according to a schedule defined as follows:

1.               Mapping and descriptive analysis of database status (4 months)

2.               Data corrections and first multivariate analysis (4 months)

3.               Complete the analysis, iconography and drafting of the methods/results sections (4 months)

# Analysis of the database

·       Descriptive analysis

·       Implementation of analytical protocol to explore mechanisms of cultural change

·       Mapping of cultural geography identified by database analysis

·       Preparation of the synthetic figure of the personal ornaments characteristic of each chrono-cultural entity explored

# Scientific paper drafting

·       Preparation of the figures

·       Writing of the articles’ method and results sections

·       Preparation of analysis files

Vos atouts / Vos talents

Holder of a master’s degree in the field of Prehistory and the analysis of material culture, you have a good knowledge of the European contexts of the recent Palaeolithic and field experience allowing a detailed understanding of the discovery contexts expoqsed in the literature.

•       You are proficient mapping tools, multivariate analysis and statistics

•       You are comfortable with the R language

•       You are autonomous in your work, demonstrate rigor

•       You have a sense of organization and adaptation

•       You are able to work in a team and collaborate on multidisciplinary projects

•       Experience in the field of mathematics is desirable

Do you recognize yourself? Apply!

More information:

You will integrate the Archaeology of Symbols research team. Research conducted within PACEA focuses on the evolution, culture, and symbolic trajectories of past populations in relation to environmental changes, from the origins of the human lineage to more recent periods. This broad thematic framework brings together specialists working in the fields of archaeology, bioanthropology, funerary archaeology, paleoanthropology, paleontology, prehistory, archaeozoology, paleogenetics, geoarchaeology, and geology. Within the laboratory. You will also contribute to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional project “Threads”, affiliated with the GPR Human Past.

Based in Pessac, Gironde, FRANCE – access by tramway line B (stop « François Bordes ») buses, bike.

The laboratory is near the city-centre of Bordeaux and about 60 Km of the Atlantic coast.

12-month fixed-term contract

Gross monthly salary: from 2250€ and 2340€ according to the salary grid

Job Benefits:

50 days of annual leave from the first year

75% of the cost of a Gironde public transport pass covered

Contribution to private healthcare insurance of 15€ / month

Subsidised meals

Leisure, sports and cultural activities for all staff

Disabled-friendly establishment

Possibility of staff parking

Sustainable mobility package for commuting between home and work

Welcome programme and training courses

Recruitment process: Applications are reviewed as they arrive.

Candidates selected for an interview will be contacted by the Recruitment Officer for a first pre-qualification phone conversation. An interview with the supervisor will then be organised by videoconference.