From Geoff Duller
ggd@aber.ac.uk
Dear Colleague,
I would be grateful if you would bring this fully funded PhD
opportunity to the attention of any potential candidates that you may
know.
Re-evaluating the environmental controls of the Harappan Civilization
*collapse* using OSL dating of Saraswati river palaeochannels
A 3 year Leverhulme funded PhD studentship supervised by Professor
Geoff Duller and Professor Mark Macklin, Institute of Geography and
Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, UK
The Harappan Civilization developed in the Indus Valley of present day
Pakistan and India from 2600 to around 1900 BC, synchronous with the
cultures of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Current research postulates
that the Harappan demise was triggered by climate change to drier
conditions, yet the underlying cause for this change has yet to be
understood. The Hindu holy book (Rig Veda) indicates that a large river
named the Saraswati used to flow parallel to the Indus, yet is absent
today. The primary aim of this new major multi- national (UK, USA &
Pakistan) & multi-institutional project (Universities of Aberdeen,
Aberystwyth, London and Newcastle, UK; Woods Hole, USA) is to locate
the former Saraswati river in southern Pakistan using remote sensing,
aerial photography and ground penetrating radar, and to date abandoned
river channels using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques.
These ages will determine for the first time when the Saraswati was an
active river, when it ceased to flow and if this corresponds to the
demise of the urban Harappan Civilization. It will also constrain
whether the Saraswati ceased to flow because of weakening of the monsoon
rains or because its headwaters were captured into the neighbouring
Sutlej or Yamuna systems.
We are looking for a student with an upper second or first class (or
equivalent) undergraduate and/or masters degree in Archaeological,
Geographical, Earth or Environmental Sciences to undertake PhD research
on developing an OSL chronology for Holocene river development in the
Indus Valley. The PhD is available immediately and the successful
student must be in post by early 2008 in order to participate in the
first field season in February 2008. The stipend is £12,228 pa plus fees
(£3,240). Applicants should email their letters of application
(including the names of two referees) and CVs to both Professor Geoff
Duller (
ggd@aber.ac.uk) and Professor Mark Macklin (
mvm@aber.ac.uk) and
it is expected that interviews will take place in late November/early
December 2007.
--
Professor Geoff Duller
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences,
University of Wales, Aberystwyth,
Ceredigion SY23 3DB U.K.
Phone: +44-1970-622611
Fax: +44-1970-622659
http://www.aber.ac.uk/iges/staff/dullergeoff.shtml <
https://mail.fc.ul.pt/exchweb/bin/redir ... eoff.shtml>
E-mail:
ggd@aber.ac.uk