Ancient proteins as indicators of climatic and evolutionary change

Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) is a powerful new method that is revolutionizing the ability of archaeologists to provide insights into faunal changes through time. The method, involving mass peptide fingerprinting using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, enables identification of faunal remains from preserved proteins. These proteins can in some cases survive over long time periods, including in parts of the world where ancient DNA rarely preserves.

ZooMS allows study of less well-preserved archaeological assemblages, where little material is identifiable by traditional morphological methods, and also improves identification rates and specificity for better-preserved assemblages. ZooMS accordingly holds significant potential to improve our understanding of changes in faunal assemblages through time in diverse regions of the world. This project will involve the zooarchaeological and ZooMS study of diverse faunal assemblages across a wide region of Africa, Australia, South America or Asia. It will be used to examine changes in faunal diversity through time, enabling the testing of theories about climatic and evolutionary change, as well as human impacts such as extinction, extirpation and the introduction of domesticates. In some regions, where access to relevant sites is possible, the examination of megafaunal extinctions, and testing of theories about the role of climate or humans in driving them during the Late Quaternary period, could be undertaken.

Please visit our website https://imprs.shh.mpg.de for details about the projects, the IMPRS-SHH and admission requirements.
The preferred starting date of PhD appointment: September 1st, 2019 / or an individual basis between July 1 and October 1, 2019
Contract type: TV-B/L 13 (50% / Max Planck support contract or contract with university), temporary, 3 years (extension possible)

Application: via our online application portal
https://s-lotus.gwdg.de/mpg/mjws/perso/shh_d012.nsf/application

The application deadline is January 31st, 2019.
The deadline for references is February 3rd, 2019.

For further information on how to apply, please visit our website https://imprs.shh.mpg.de, or contact us at [Email Address Removed].

IMPRS-SHH is supporting equal opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. The Max Planck Society is committed to employ more handicapped individu-als and especially encourages them to apply.

Reference to data protection: Your data protection rights, the purpose for which your data will be processed, as well as further information about data protection is available to you on the website https://imprs.shh.mpg.de.