[Sasnet] Funded PhD opportunity in luminescence dating of the collapse of the Harappan civilization (fwd)

[Bonnie A B Blackwell]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 18:11:30 -0000
From: Geoff Duller <ggd at ABER.AC.UK>
To: QUATERNARY at CLIFFY.UCS.MUN.CA
Subject: Funded PhD opportunity in luminescence dating of the collapse of the
     Harappan civilization

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
            &lsquo;collapse&rsquo; 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 at aber.ac.uk)
and Professor Mark Macklin (mvm at 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

E-mail: ggd at aber.ac.uk