About the Project
Start date: 1 October 2017
Supervisory Committee: Michelle Alexander (lead), Oliver Craig, Martin Carver, Camilla Speller
Research Context
The Middle Ages (6th to 13th century) in the Mediterranean saw a sequence of some of the most potent ideological regimes yet visited on the European continent, whether Christian or Islamic. While the outline of these events is familiar from history, very little is known of their programmes, economic effects or human costs. Focused on Sicily, the ERC funded project “Sicily in Transition” (SICTRANSIT) sets out to discover what drives these different transitions and what happens to people on the ground while they take hold.
Between the 6th century and the 13th century, Sicily experienced four radical changes in regime: from Byzantine to Aghlabid to Fatimid to Norman to Swabian. Potentially, each of these transitions saw new groups of migrants, new forms of agriculture and settlement, new networks of exchange, new distributions of wealth and new types of social control. This PhD project will investigate and document diet, economy and demographic movement across these changes of religious political control through the isotopic analysis of human and animal remains. Carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) bulk stable isotope analysis of bone collagen will be applied to directly assess an individual’s average diet. The PhD student will also aid in the development and application of new approaches for measuring amino and fatty acids from bone by gas/liquid chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/LC-c-IRMS). Once the bulk and single compound data from the humans and potential food sources (associated remains of fish, avians, terrestrial animals and plants) have been collated, the PhD will apply a bayesian model for estimating the contributions of different food sources. The reading of diet from animal bones will help to indicate husbandry regime e.g. potential foddering of waste (bagasse) from sugar cane fed to animals. Oxygen isotopes provide direct information relating to the lifetime mobility of an individual, since tooth mineral phosphate and carbonate oxygen reflects drinking water consumed during childhood (the period of enamel formation). The method is therefore useful for revealing first generation immigrants from key skeletal collections, working closely with a second PhD student (aDNA) also working on the SICTRANSIT project.
The student will be integrated into BioArCh, an interdisciplinary centre involving the Departments of Archaeology, Biology and Chemistry, designed to deliver research and training in bioarchaeology and the study of ancient biomolecules. The student will work in the BioArch Light Stable Isotope Facility, with in-house instrumentation for both bulk and single-compound isotope analysis.
The student will be an integrated member of the Anglo-Italian SICTRANSIT research team, with the potential to participate in field work in Sicily.
Funding
This studentship is associated with Horizon 2020- Project SICTRANSIT. A stipend at the Research Council UK rate (indicative £14,296 for 2016/17, to be confirmed for 2017/18) and a fee waiver at the Home/EU rate will be provided (indicative £4,121 for 2016/17, to be confirmed for 2017/18). The end date of the grant from which your scholarship will be taken is 31 July 2021 and no stipend payments or fee waiver would be available beyond that point should you choose to change your mode of study from full to part time.
This competition is open to UK and EU graduates or graduates from overseas. If a successful candidate is not eligible to pay Home/EU fees, they will need to fund the difference in tuition fees between the prevailing Home/EU and Overseas fees.
Please read the 'How to apply' tab before submitting your application:
http://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/postgraduate-study/research-postgrads/application/
To discuss your suitability for this project please email: [Email Address Removed]
Deadline is 31 January 2017 at 23h59min.
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