Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) in Prehistoric ... (Research Associate)

Introduction

The Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA), a member of the Leibniz Association, is a globally active archaeological research institute and museum headquartered in Mainz with additional locations in Neuwied, Mayen, and Schleswig. Since its founding in 1852, the museum has been dedicated to the material remains of three million years of human history with the aim of understanding human behavior and action, as well as the development and change of societies. For the Schleswig location, we are looking for as soon as possible

a Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) in Prehistoric Archaeology (EG 13 TV-L) full-time, limited to 15 months

During the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, Northern Europe was populated by mobile hunter-gatherers. Due to their non-sedentary lifestyle, traces of these societies are difficult to find, which complicates our understanding of their way of life and development. However, some parts of the southwestern Baltic Sea were only flooded during the Holocene and may therefore contain anthropogenic structures and landscapes from this Paleolithic/early Mesolithic period. Recently, a sunken stone wall was discovered in the southwestern Baltic Sea, which likely dates to the Stone Age and was used for hunting. Similar hunting structures, which apparently served for the mass hunting of ungulate herds, have also been found in other parts of the world.

A three-year project (SEASCAPE), funded by the Leibniz Association, aims to understand this structure in more detail, identify other previously unknown Stone Age megastructures on the Baltic Sea floor, and reconstruct the paleoenvironmental conditions under which these structures were built. The SEASCAPE project involves researchers in the fields of archaeology, geology, geophysics, and paleoclimatology from the Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde (IOW), the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie, Schleswig location (LEIZA), the Universität Rostock, and the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.

Within the framework of the SEASCAPE project, the LEIZA Competence Area 1 "Pleistocene and Early Holocene Archaeology" at the Schleswig location is responsible for Work Package 1, which involves searching for common global features of such structures that are crucial to their function. Furthermore, their impact on the settlement behavior and the socio-economic structures of hunter-gatherer communities is to be investigated.

Tasks

• the creation of a GIS database of sub-recent megastructures in Arctic regions, which were built for hunting and reindeer or caribou husbandry, as well as similar prehistoric megastructures worldwide

• the in-depth analysis of the features essential to the function of these structures, as well as the determination of functional differences and chronological developments
• the investigation of morphologically similar sub-recent structures (e.g., animal traps, fish weirs) and the identification of diagnostic differences and their embedding in the natural environment
• the analysis of the significance of these structures for the settlement and socio-economic behavior of the involved communities

Profile

• Completed university degree in Prehistoric Archaeology with a doctorate, preferably in the field of Stone Age hunter-gatherer archaeology
• Very good written and spoken English skills
• Enjoyment of working in interdisciplinary teams
• Sound GIS knowledge to perform feature-based data collection on prehistoric and more recent megastructures, followed by GIS-supported comparative data analysis
• Knowledge of the stratigraphy of the Baltic Sea is also equa