Research engineer in Paleospeleology 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 Research Engineer W/M in Paleospeleology.

“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

The study of Palaeolithic art has to date mainly focused on the paintings and engravings present in hundreds of subterranean contexts, yet relatively little attention has been paid to the global phenomenon of the cultural use of caves. We build upon both existing and new data to draw an overarching history of the relationship between Palaeolithic and Mesolithic communities, and underground world. Our results will improve our understanding of the motivations behind the use of caves by Neanderthals and modern humans in western Europe.

The project aligns perfectly with the objectives of WP4-Action 3 “How did symbolic systems emerge and how did they affect societal organisation?”.

Study the anthropogenic deposits in the Neanderthalian Bruniquel and Cussac, presumed Gravettian caves using ‘speleofacts’: identify structures, carry out 3D surveys, establish their relative and radio-digital diachronic, test pairings, understand their topographical logic in the general context of the site occupied by the respective human groups and, as far as possible, interpret their function.

 As part of two major missions within:

1.     The Bruniquel cave (mid-2026), where you will work in interaction with other leaders of the cave’s study areas

2.     The cave of Cussac, Salle de la Découverte you will integrate the current monograph then for the Méandre 12 of the Upstream branch (start-up in 2027)

·       You identify the structures

·       You carry out the surveys on a 3D basis

·       You establish their relative and radio-digital diachrony, test pairings, determine their topographic logic in the general context of the site invested by the respective human groups and, as far as possible, interpret the function

·       You are actively contributing to the writing of a summary article on the Bruniquel Cave scheduled for late 2026 – early 2027

·       You take part in the preparation of the report related to the field mission at the Cave of Cussac and draft a summary article on the subject

·       You are participating in the session of the next Prehistoric Congress of France Clermont-Ferrand in June 2026

Vos atouts / Vos talents

Holder of an engineering degree or a doctorate in geomorphology or prehistoric archaeology in the field of palaeospeleology on the study of human frequentation of the underground world, you have more than 2 years of experience in palaeospeleology, ichnology or archeological-geography of the underworld.

•       You master 3D tools, scanning, photogrammetry

•       You are proficient in GIS and map processing software

•       You know the karst-type geological environment as well as prehistoric archaeology

•       You are autonomous, rigorous, methodological and demonstrate initiative

•       You master written and oral English (level C1 / C2) in the context of international collaborations and for writing scientific articles

Do you recognize yourself? Apply!

More information:

By joining us in this position, you will be integrated into the SYMBOL team of the PACEA laboratory. Your work will be supervised by Jacques JAUBERT and Nathalie FOURMENT and will also contribute to the research of the EURAPAL team (25%).

Trips are planned in France for the field analysis of the two sites in July and October 2026, then in January 2027.

12-month fixed-term contract

Gross monthly salary: from 2460€ and 2580€ 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.