The GPR ‘Human Past’: our group and our research: The GPR (Grand Programme de Recherche) ‘Human Past’ is an interdisciplinary research project supported by the University of Bordeaux's Initiative d’Excellence. ‘Human Past’ gathers ~110 researchers from 3 laboratories (PACEA, AUSONIUS, and Archéosciences Bordeaux) affiliated with the University of Bordeaux (UB) and the University of Bordeaux Montaigne (UBM). Our expertise combines Biological Anthropology, Classical and Medieval Archaeology, Prehistory, Protohistory, History, Epigraphy, Archaeometry, Geochronology and Computer Science Applications to Cultural Heritage. ’Human Past’ aims to document, characterize and understand the tipping points that have induced major biological and cultural changes within past human populations. Spanning a large chronological period (from Prehistory to historical times), our research aims to identify the steps that enabled a primate originally adapted to African ecosystems to evolve into a species that occupies and impacts every ecosystem on the planet. Biological and social systems will be scrutinized at different scales from a multitude of perspectives with particular attention paid to phenotypic and genetic variability, cognition, technology, social organization, belief systems, and genetic and cultural adaptive strategies that drive human societies. This position advertisement belongs to the first part of the funding scheme, planned for 4 years. Project description : Two recent and complementary ANR projects, ANCESTRA (coord. M. Pruvost; 2016-2020) and INTERACT (coord. MF. Deguilloux / W. Haak; 2018-2023) have permitted to acquire new palaeogenomic data for ancient populations from the French territory dated from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age periods. The targeted periods encompass two major transitions in human evolution, ie. the Mesolithic-Neolithic and the Neolithic-Bronze Age transitions that are well known for major human groups’ migratory movements and important cultural and social transformation. The aim of the post-doctoral project is to explore the palaeogenomic data in hands to characterize the evolution of the genomic pool of the human groups from these transition periods and to disentangle the balanced roles of evolutionary factors involved in the cultural evolution of the groups. The cultural targeted breaks, linked to migrations, admixture, and demographic changes in contexts of increasing social complexification and development of hierarchies, are ideal laboratories to clarify the respective role of cultural and environmental factors on populations’ genetic evolution. The main post-doc objective proposes a precise characterization of the genes under selection, but also of the mode and tempo of these changes. Given the available transect of data, the macro- and micro-scales can be investigated and precisely confronted to the complexity of human structure changes. Adequacy of the postdoctoral project with the objectives of the GRP : The project perfectly fits with the objectives of the WP1-Action 3 of Human Past GPR that proposes to disentangle the respective / combined roles of “Environmental and socio-cultural factors affecting genetic and phenotypic variation”. Reconstructing evolutionary trajectories of human populations requires both (i) examinations of genetic and phenotypic variation at a population level, as well as (ii) the analysis of socio-cultural factors. These two elements of discussion will be addressed by the post-doc project that will permit (i) to better understand the adaptation of the human groups to new environments, diet and way of life and (ii) to determine the role of social transformation at different scales in the evolution of populations’ gene pools. Desired skills : The candidate must - hold a PhD in Archaeogenetics or in (Palaeo)genomics - have experiences in anthropology, genetics, molecular biology, computational genomics, and/or bioinformatics. Familiarity with handling NGS data is essential. - have demonstrated abilities in presenting research results in international academic contexts and writing papers in international peer-reviewed journals. Principal supervisor(s): Marie-France Deguilloux (Palaeogenetic platform responsible, Maître de Conférences HC, [email protected], Université de Bordeaux) and Mélanie Pruvost (CNRS Researcher, mé[email protected], CNRS)

Application : the candidate will submit their application, consisting of a letter of motivation (2 pages max., specifically focusing on defending the profile required for this position) and a CV (including list of publications, if applicable), to the supervisors mentioned in the job description, and to Adrien Pourtier ([email protected]), Francesco d'Errico ([email protected]) and Adeline Le Cabec ([email protected]), before May 1, 2022. Terms of employment : Place of work : UMR PACEA, Bordeaux, France Contract duration : 24 months Expected starting date of the contract : Autumn 2022