Here at the department we usually have phd positions for individual thesis work as is the norm for the humanities in Sweden. That is not always the case abroad. In Copenhagen they now advertise a position in a small research team that focus on the Neolithic. Below is an exerpt, find the rest of the requirements at the Saxo Institute and apply before 28 March.
The overall goal of the project is to explain why figurative representations are missing among Northern Europe’s first farmers. As farming spread from southeast to central Europe, the number of figurines decreased and when agriculture expanded to northern Europe, they had disappeared. The project seeks explanations for the absence of figurines in deep socio-cultural and ritual-religious differences dividing Neolithic Europe in a figurative southeastern part and an imageless northern part. This will include the identification and analyses of shifts in social organization and ritual-religious practices across early agricultural communities in southeast and central Europe.
The successful candidate will be part of a small research group consisting of the Principal Investigator and one postdoc and will be based at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, under supervision of Principal Investigator of the project, Associate Professor Rune Iversen.
Job description
The PhD fellow will carry out independent research on the central European Neolithic including the Linear Pottery culture and later groups. The position will include data collection, comparative analyses and presentation of results. The data collection will focus on two main aspects: the presence of figurines and the manifestations of changes in social organization across Neolithic groups. The main task will be to collect and record the relevant data in a custom-made database and help with performing detailed distribution maps in GIS in order to investigate similarities and differences in material culture. The gathered information will be incorporated into a wider analysis referring to the main project’s research question.