Untangling the Late Bronze Age Collapse. An interdisciplinary study of collapse dynamics and resilience strategies in the Larnaca Bay area (Cyprus)

The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, within the Science and Technology Group at KU Leuven, is a department with 38 full-time professors, about 240 researchers and 24 full-time administrative and technical staff.
The main mission of the Department is to conduct high quality scientific research on the functioning of geo- and ecosystems at different temporal and spatial scales, including human-environment interactions and the sustainable management of natural resources.
The members of the Department provide high quality education in the fields of bioengineering, geography, geology and tourism. The Department aims to play a major role in societal issues such as environmental pollution, food production, climate change, forest, green and nature management, soil and water management, subsoil exploitation, urban and rural issues, development cooperation and tourism.
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Responsibilities

The Late Bronze Age (LBA) collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean remains a compelling enigma. This collapse marked the end of a period of remarkable prosperity, characterized by the flourishing of powerful empires (e.g. the Hittites in Anatolia and the New Kingdom in Egypt) with extensive trade networks (e.g. copper from Cyprus). Between the mid-13th and 12th centuries BCE, the region underwent significant changes that may have been caused by migrations, invasions, political turmoil, environmental shifts, natural disasters, or a combination of these factors. The collapse clearly embodies a complex interplay of nature-human dynamics. Advancing our understanding of the LBA collapse necessitates a deeper insight into the varying significance of different factors, their interactions, and the responses they elicited. The project entails a novel interdisciplinary, long-term, and bottom-up approach to examine the collapse dynamics and its aftermath within the Larnaca Bay area (Cyprus). Hala Sultan Tekke, once a thriving LBA hub of international trade, emerges as a focal point for this research, offering rich archaeological and environmental data, and untapped research potential. The project relies on an innovative suite of archaeological prospection and dating techniques, geoarchaeological -, archaeobotanical-, and coastal modelling methods, to provide a deeper understanding of the LBA collapse phenomenon and the broader archaeological discourse surrounding crises and resilience.

Profile

We are seeking a Postdoctoral researcher for a 2-year position to investigate the potential role of riverine sediment influx in the closure of a coastal lagoon. Semi-arid regions such as the Mediterranean are considered particularly sensitive to human-induced land use and land cover changes which may significantly influence fluvial sediment fluxes.

The successful candidate will examine whether sedimentation contributed to the lagoon’s closure, with a focus on reconstructing the evolution of fluvial systems in the area. This includes the mapping of palaeochannels around the exisitng salt lake using remote sensing techniques, and the application of sedimentological, geochemical, ecological, and geochronological analyses on mechanically drilled cores from the lake and the Tremithos catchment. These data will be used to reconstruct the transformation from a lagoon to a salt lake. Additionally, the candidate will assess the broader impact of climatic and land cover changes on the Larnaca Bay region. 

Activities will include fieldwork campaigns, including manual coring along cross-sections in the Tremithos catchment, the analysis of soil and sediment samples and the development, adaptation and/or application of suitable monitoring strategies that allow robust assessment of (changes in) historic sediment fluxes based on the available proxy data. We are therefore looking for an applicant with prior experience with at least some of these topics and a strong interest in fluvial system reconstruction through multidisciplinary approaches.

We solicit applications for one PostDoc position. Candidates should be fluent in English, have a background in fluvial geomorphology, sediment transport and reconstruction of sediment fluxes. Due to the interdisciplinarity of the project the candidate should be highly motivated to combine both field campaigns, desktop analyses and modelling. 

Offer

The candidate will start with a 1-year contract that is extendable to a total of 2 years. Funding is available starting immediately and for a full PostDoc (2 years). The candidate should have obtained excellent results in his/her bachelor, master and PhD training. Proficiency in English is required. During the Postdoc, the candidate is expected to contribute to teaching assignments (e.g. practical supervision) and supervision of bachelor and master thesis students. The candidate should be prepared to take up responsibilities with respect to management of the research laboratories.

More information

Division of Geography and Tourism

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Christian Schwarz, tel.: +32 16 32 64 27, mail: [email protected] or Prof. dr. Matthias Vanmaercke, tel.: +32 16 37 21 67, mail: [email protected].

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