Postdoctoral Fellowship in Classical Archaeology

The GPR ‘Human Past’: our group and our research / Le GPR “Human Past”: notre groupe et notre recherche

The GPR (Grand Programme de Recherche) ‘Human Past’ is an interdisciplinary research project supported by the University of Bordeaux's Initiative d’Excellence. ‘Human Past’ gathers ~110 researchers from 3 laboratories (PACEA, AUSONIUS, and Archéosciences Bordeaux) affiliated with the University of Bordeaux (UB) and the University of Bordeaux Montaigne (UBM). Our expertise combines Biological Anthropology, Classical and Medieval Archaeology, Prehistory, Protohistory, History, Epigraphy, Archaeometry, Geochronology and Computer Science Applications to Cultural Heritage.

’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.

This position advertisement belongs to the first part of the funding scheme, planned for 4 years.

Project description / Description du projet

The post-doctoral researcher will work on urban planning and monumental architecture to reconstruct procession routes of Greco-Roman towns and understand how they impacted the perception of monuments and urban space by their citizens and attendants. From selected case studies, the candidate will implement and develop a method of recording and cross-referencing data from different sources (city plans, monuments and their decorations, urban furniture and literary and epigraphic sources). The candidate will map processional routes and develop a related GIS. The research also involves the creation of a dedicated website that will be regularly updated to report progresses. The candidate is expected to organize a workshop at the end of the first year in order to discuss their methods and preliminary results. They will present their final results during a day seminar at the end of the second year and act as editor for the printed or online publication of the workshop proceedings.

et en prendra en charge la publication des actes.

Adequacy of the postdoctoral project with the objectives of the GRP / Adéquation du projet post-doctoral avec les objectifs du GPR

The position is more specifically attached to WP 4 ‘How did symbolic systems emerge and how did they affect societal organization’. This work package aims to investigate the genesis and evolution of symbolic behaviour in past societies, from Prehistory to Greco-Roman antiquity. The post-doctoral fellow will be the key player in Action 4 ‘The impact of rituals on ancient urban space’. The selected case studies are intra-urban processional routes and processional routes towards extra-urban sanctuaries. The aim of the project is first to detect the itineraries based on archaeological evidences and map them, second to highlight the tipping point that explains why certain processional itineraries, which originally simply adapted to the constraints of the terrain, underwent a spectacular scenography over time and to what extent it impacted urban space.