We offer 1 PhD scholarship (bursary) position in the Landscape Archaeology team within Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology. As a PhD candidate, you will be committed to conducting independent and original scientific research and will be expected to disseminate this research in academic (international peer-reviewed publications and presentations) and nonacademic forums.

You will also be required to participate in the annual field school organised by the research group. For this position we are looking for a talented and ambitious young researcher who is willing and able to work on the interface between geology and archaeology, and preferably already has experience at this interface, for example doing pedological or geophysical work.

We welcome all research proposals that strengthen the long-term research programs of the Landscape Archaeology team at the GIA in Italy, which currently focus on Bronze Age settlement in Calabria and Roman settlement and land management systems in Lazio (for more information, see https://www.rug.nl/staff/p.m.van.leusen/research and https://www.rug.nl/staff/tymon.de.haas/research). We are looking for a candidate that can contribute to one or both of these projects by focusing on landscape taphonomic processes, such as (but not limited to):

• the Bronze Age to Roman water management systems in the Pontine Plain
• geomorphological processes affecting our understanding of the archaeological record in the Raganello watershed; or
• the separation of natural and anthropogenic anomalies in near-surface magnetometer survey data.

For questions regarding the research group and topic, you may contact:

Prof. P.A.J. Attema, email address: p.a.j.attema@rug.nl
Dr P.M. van Leusen, email address: p.m.van.leusen@rug.nl
Dr T.C.A. de Haas, email address: Tymon.de.haas@rug.nl

We are looking for talented and ambitious researchers in the relevant disciplines.

Your qualifications are:

• a Master’s degree in archaeology, geology or geophysics with an excellent academic record
• proven research abilities and close affinity with the research topic
• excellent command of English and proven academic writing skills; a working knowledge of Italian will be to your advantage

Fixed-term contract: 48 months.

The PhD scholarship programme:
Information about the legal and financial framework of the PhD scholarship programme can be found here: https://www.rug.nl/education/phd-programmes/phd-scholarship-programme/

Please study the conditions carefully before applying.

You will participate in the Faculty’s GSH training programme for PhD students (cf. https://www.rug.nl/research/gradschool-humanities/?lang=en). Part of the training consists in following the Career Perspectives curriculum, which aims to prepare students for their (academic or non-academic) careers after the PhD trajectory. You are also strongly encouraged to expand your skill set by following the faculty-funded Start-to-Teach programme as part of your PhD training (see here).

Start date: as soon as possible after 1 November 2022

Faculty of Arts

Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has established an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative university offering high-quality teaching and research. Its 36,000 students are encouraged to develop their own individual talents through challenging study and career paths. The University of Groningen is an international center of knowledge: it is among the best research universities in Europe and is allied with prestigious partner universities and networks worldwide.

The GIA (Groningen Institute of Archaeology) is a leading international research institute with a strong interdisciplinary research tradition in Classical and Mediterranean archaeology, the archaeology of north-western Europe, and bioarchaeology. GIA engages in fundamental archaeological research in the Mediterranean, Northwest Europe and the Polar Regions. GIA stimulates and integrates fundamental research on past human societies and their environments, from Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers to complex urban societies. Major recent and current research projects are listed here: https://www.rug.nl/research/groningen-institute-of-archaeology/research/major-gia-projects

The current scholarship is related to the research group of Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology, which focuses on regional and long-term settlement and land-use patterns in Bronze Age to Classical Italy, but also on the methodology of non-invasive detection and the supra-regional assessment and sharing of research data according to FAIR principles.

The Graduate School for the Humanities is the home for all (circa 200) PhD candidates of the Faculty of Arts, and is committed to creating and maintaining excellent conditions for PhD research in all fields of the humanities. In addition to organizing local courses, the GSH works closely with 16 national research schools, which offer regular courses and seminars by top national and international researchers.