The student will be based at Oxford under the supervision of Christopher Ramsey and will be involved in (i) studying all of the records included in the RESET project which are relevant to the timings of the AETs (abrupt environmental transitions), (ii) constructing overall Bayesian models using existing methodologies (Bronk Ramsey 2007), and (iii) developing and testing other Bayesian statistical methods applicable to the integration of chronological records.  The student will liaise with the other members of the RESET team, to ensure that all information relevant to the overall chronological models is included in the analysis.  They will also have the opportunity to be involved in the radiocarbon dating aspects of the project.

The studentship is for 36 months commencing on the 1st October 2008.  

Background

RESET (RESponse of humans to abrupt Environmental Transitions) is a NERC Consortium project funded to ca. £3.0 million which will commence on 1st January, 2008 and last for five years. The project is a collaborative one between the ), the School of Archaeology at Oxford University (Nick Barton, Simon Blockley, Chris Bronk Ramsey, Mark Pollard) Natural History Museum (Chris Stringer), the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (Eelco Rohling, Andy Roberts and the departments of Geography and Geology at Royal Holloway University of London (Clive Gamble, John Lowe, Martin Menzies). The science co-ordinator is John Lowe, Royal Holloway and Rupert Housley (currently at Glasgow University) will be appointed as Project Manager. The project aims to improve our understanding of how humans may have responded to rapid environmental changes during the recent past. This will require improved chronology and correlation of high-resolution marine and terrestrial (including archaeological) records from sites located throughout Europe and North Africa. RESET will employ tephrochronology to provide a chronological ‘lattice’ for synchronizing records and events, and develop high-precision age models for individual sequences using a Bayesian statistical approach. The project brings together experts in Palaeolithic archaeology, late Quaternary palaeoclimatology, marine geology, volcanic geology and tephrochronology, radiocarbon dating and age modeling, and relevant statistical applications.

The studentship

The student will be based at Oxford under the supervision of Christopher Ramsey and will be involved principally in (i) studying all of the records included in the RESET project which are relevant to the timings of the AETs (abrupt environmental transitions), (ii) constructing overall Bayesian models using existing methodologies (Bronk Ramsey 2007), and (iii) developing and testing other Bayesian statistical methods applicable to the integration of chronological records. The student will liaise with the other members of the RESET team, to ensure that all information relevant to the overall chronological models is included in the analysis. They will also have the opportunity to be involved in the radiocarbon dating aspects of the project.

Opportunity

New statistical methods are now available for integration of chronological information into comprehensive age models. The appointed student will have access to a whole range of chronological information arising from RESET that is suitable for this kind of analysis. In addition the student will also be able to make use of data from other records that would also be amenable to this form of analysis. The student will focus primarily on developing overall age models that help in the understanding of leads and lags, or phase relationships in AETs. The student will be helped in planning their project by the RESET workshops and through liaison with other members of the RESET team. They will be able to use existing methodologies (developed by the principle supervisor at Oxford) in the first instance, but also will look into comparison with other statistical approaches and possible further developments and refinements of the statistical methods in use. Computing facilities for the modelling will be provided by the department/University (a dedicated X_Server is already in use for modelling, and the University of Oxford has a campus grid which can be used by the student).

The appointed student will also learn about other aspects of RESET such as radiocarbon dating, tephorchronology, marine and archaeological background, through work in the laboratory, project meetings and master-classes.

Training

The appointed student will be expected to hold an MSc/MPhys degree in an appropriate subject, or to have been trained to an equivalent level, and may be directed to take appropriate short courses on the NERC-approved Masters programme in Quaternary Science (taught jointly by RHUL and UCL), at the NOC (Southampton), and the MSc in Archaeological Science at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology (Oxford) in the first year of the DPhil study programme.

There are Core Courses provided by the University of Oxford that nurture generic skills, such as oral and PowerPoint presentations, the use of software, scientific writing, etc., that all new DPhil students are expected to attend. The student appointed to this project will be required to present progress reports at the periodic RESET workshops as well as to staff and other postgraduate students in the department, and will be subject to the University of Oxford’s standard review process. The student will also be expected to present the results of the research in at least one international workshop or conference prior to the termination of the DPhil programme of study.