Arguably the most powerful social tool in the animal kingdom, language may have evolved as an adaptation to a new demand: the coordination of joint action. Coordinated joint action requires highly flexible adjustments in communicative behaviour regarding social context, interaction partner and ecological settings. Are the evolutionary roots of this plasticity to be found in our closest living relatives, the great apes? This hypothesis remains to be tested, because most comparative work focuses on population- or species-level variation rather than variation on the individual level. To tease apart variation on an individual, group and species level, we will gather comparative observational and experimental datasets on the coordination of joint activities in great apes and humans. The successful applicant will study social interactions among orang-utans in wild (Suaq, North Sumatra, Indonesia) and captive (various zoos in Europe) research settings.
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[Website Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen]
Create a physical model that connects the optical properties of the pigments used in cave paintings, and measured in-situ, to their physical and chemical properties: chemical composition of the minerals and binders, granulometry, texture. That model will be based on a physical model of radiative transfer inside the pigment layer. The pigments used in cave paintings are usually dry powders. We do not currently have a physical model for the reflectance of dry powders, as opposed to suspensions or compact materials. Experiments show that pigments can have different colors with the same chemical and mineral composition, implying that scattering effects are playing a role in the color. We have very few reference materials with well known physical properties and measured spectral response as well as bidirectional reflectance function, for dry powders. We do not have accurate optical constants for the materials (minerals, binders) used in the pigments, and measuring them is challenging. Painting materials are applied on a rock wall. This substrate contributes to the overall reflectance and appearance in some spectral ranges. We will have to remove its contribution.
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[Website ABG]
In the AD 270s and 280s, huge numbers of imitations of copper-alloy radiate coins, usually referred to as “barbarous radiates”, were struck in Britain. While they are almost ubiquitous finds on excavations throughout the province, they have not been the focus of much research. This project therefore aims to redress the balance. Through new chemical (portable-XRF and MP-AES) and archaeological analysis, this work will place these radiates in a wider setting and unlock their potential for understanding the late Roman technological, social and economic world. It will explore the production and use of these imitations and their social importance. What does copying, irregularity, or imitation mean at this time, and how do these coins relate to contemporary metallurgical practice?
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[Website University of Reading]
Dr. Leslea Hlusko is the Lead Researcher of the project Tied2Teeth: “Expanding our understanding of human evolution through pleiotropy” whose objective is to study the influence of the genes acting on dental variation upon aspects of human anatomy, and to apply this to the fossil record of the Iberian Peninsula and eastern Africa. The purpose of this contract is to train a doctor candidate within the framework of this project, who will develop a line of research focused on the evolution of genetic influences on dental variation in primates (human and non-human).
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[Website CENIEH]
Les caractérisations géométrique et sémantique de pièces numérisées restent fastidieuses pour l'archéologue, que ce soit pour la caractérisation ou l'indexation. Ce processus est complexe à implémenter numériquement pour un objet archéologique dont les informations géométriques sont très parcellaires (usure, fracture, fragmentation) et dont les méthodes de fabrication ne sont pas connues a priori. Dans le cadre de ce projet, nous proposons de baser le processus de caractérisation des surfaces maillées sur l'extraction de propriétés locales et de manipuler ces dernières de manière plus abstraite via des graphes. Un travail préliminaire est en cours dans le projet avec un post-doctorant dans le domaine des graphes de Reeb. Lors de la phase d’appariement, les données multi-modales pourront être intégrées : géométries, photographies ou texture, sémantique.
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[Website LIB]
Under the ERC Starting Grant project DOPAMICS, we offer a research opportunity to study the diversity of biomechanical properties of Amazonian palm fibers within and between species in forest landscapes of French Guiana. The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest and one of the most diverse terrestrial ecosystems. However, despite uncertainties about the future of its biodiversity, the state of Amazonian biodiversity and the underlying ecological processes remain largely under-documented to date. Palms (Arecaceae) are one of the most abundant families in Amazonian forest inventories and are also an essential resource for human societies since pre-Columbian times. Palms provide major food resources due to the nutritional properties of their fruits, as well as construction and basketry materials due to the excellent properties of their fibers. Some palm species are also considered biological indicators of ancient occupation by archaeologists and ecologists. The challenges regarding the preservation and sustainable use of natural resources is also gaining interest as modern societies seek nature-based solutions, such as the conception of innovative eco-materials. Therefore, studying palm diversity can offer new insights onto the history of Amazonian biodiversity as well as proposing new strategies to meet contemporary socio-economic needs. The DOPAMICS project aims to understand how pre-Columbian societies have shaped the diversity of Amazonian palms through subsistence agriculture and domestication. DOPAMICS focuses on emblematic but little-known archaeological sites in French Guiana: the "ring ditches". It builds upon an interdisciplinary methodology at the interface between life sciences, humanities and data sciences to assess the impact of pre-Columbian societies on the diversity and evolution of five palm species of major importance. Work Package 2 (WP2) specifically focuses on the "useful" functional diversity related to the metabolic properties of fruits and the biomechanical properties of leaf fibers.
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[Website DOPAMICS project]
Longtemps absents ou restreints en France métropolitaine les carnivores se réapproprient progressivement les territoires qu’ils occupèrent durant des millénaires. Ce projet doctoral a pour but de participer à mieux appréhender comment humains et carnivores partagèrent leurs espaces avant l’introduction des pratiques agricoles. En s’appuyant sur une étude transdisciplinaire, ce projet s’intéressera à la fois à l’évolution de la biodiversité passée, aux aspects eco-éthologiques et aux places tenues par les carnivores au sein des sociétés humaines de la fin du Paléolithique.
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[Site web PALEVOPRIM]