The CNRS annual recruitment drive for Postdoctoral Research positions is designed to offer young researchers an opportunity to spend time either in CNRS Laboratories or those it runs with other organizations or higher educational institutions.

This recruitment drive offering post doctororal contracts is aimed at the most brilliant researchers, either from France or abroad to enable them to move from the laboratory where they did their Ph.D. to acquire additional high-level research experience. Thereby, enabling them to prepare uninterruptedly, and under good working conditions, for recruitment into a company or laboratory any where in the world. Young French Ph.D.s who having spent time abroad and want to return to France, can use the post doctoral positions as a way to become better known by their French colleagues, increasing their chances of obtaining permanent positions in France.

These short-term contracts are for one year - or renewable for a further year. Monthly pay is 2500 euros gross.

Applicants must

 Have a Ph.D. or equivalent degree at the time of employment;
 Not have worked previously in the lab applied for. The only exception to this rule is for someone returning to the lab after a period of absence of at least one year;
 Be in possession of your diploma for less than two years;
 There are no nationality restrictions.

How to apply

1 - Applicants must look through the job descriptions on the web site for open positions in their field of expertise (an English version exists for all job descriptions). We invite you to look carefully at the interdisciplinary menu : it displays more than sixty job offers in several disciplinary fields or at an interdisciplinary lab.

2 - Applicants have until April 30 2007 to make contact with the labs listed and send them a completed application form.

3 - A local selection committee under the instructions of the lab director selects one candidate from the application forms received. The relevant regional offices are responsible for drawing up the contract.

4 - Selected candidates begin work on September or October 1st 2007. This date can be postponed in exceptional circumstances.

Recruitment for those with special needs

The CNRS has undertaken a policy to facilitate the professional integration of those with special needs giving scientists an opportunity to benefit from postdoctoral contracts and thus to have easier access to scientific careers.

As of this year those with special needs have two options :
1 - To apply for any post advertised in the recruitment drive

2 - And also to apply for a certain number of positions reserved for those with special needs by submitting their research project under the section « applicants with special needs » (left menu).

Applications must be received by the lab directors by April 30, 2007.

Please note that the list of job openings will be updated on several occasions. Please check back regularly.

Detail of the offer : S.H.S./28.

Heading of offer

Human-horse relationship in the nomadic societies of Central Asia: stable isotope approach combining skeletal (bone, teeth) and keratinized (hair, hoof) tissues.

Description of the project

French research teams including the Mission Archéologique Française en Asie Centrale (MAFAC) directed by H-P Francfort and the Mission archéologique franco-chinoise au Xinjiang directed by C. Debaine-Francfort and A. Idriss have unearthed several tombs which are extremely well preserved and date from the second half of the first millenium BC. Mummified bodies were discovered in association with different objects and horses that were sacrificed during funeral ceremonies.

Between 1998 and 1999, the MAFAC team excavated a large burial mound (a ‘kurgan’) at Berel (Altay mountains, Eastern Kazakhstan). In this third century BC kurgan, two human mummies were found as well as many objects and thirteen horses that had been preserved in the permafrost and placed on two levels under plates of birch bark for protection. These horses were bridled and saddled and some of them were equipped with wooden or golden masks with dummy tusks or, for one of them a Persepolis-type griffin. Each horse’s tack had its own set of themes that H-P Francfort in his iconographic analysis was able to relate to various influences: Siberian, Sino-Mongolian and Middle-Eastern ones. In addition to these ornaments samples of horse muscles, organs, stomach contents, skin or coat were taken. These remains have been submitted to specific paleogenetic or parasitologic investigations which, combined with the more traditional archeozoologic approach, contributed to describing the herd and the animals’ living and dying conditions. However, this research has not made it possible to test the hypothesis stemming from the stylistic analysis of the objects according to which the animals may have been offered by allied tribes during funerals, a practice Herodotus did describe. The other possibility is that the horses came from one herd belonging to the deceased. This question is yet to be solved and is essential to our knowledge of the relationships between the steppe people and our understanding of their funeral rites.

Isotope geochemistry can provide valuable information on this issue. Stable isotope analyses performed on biological tissues allows reconstruction of several aspects of human and animal individual histories (diet, movements, etc.). To date, most of the applications have focused on the mineral (bioapatite) or on the organic (collagen) fraction of skeletal tissues (bone, teeth). But the information gathered from these tissues is either restricted to the early life of the animal (in the case of teeth), or gives a blurred picture that is averaged over the animal’s life (in the case of bone). In contrast, the sequential sampling and stable isotope analysis of keratinized tissues (hair, hoof) records with great temporal precision, dietary (d13C, d15N) or seasonal (d18O, d2H) changes that occurred during the last months/year of an animal’s life. Skeletal tissues and keratinized tissues are well preserved in Berel’. Working in parallel with both tissues will give information at two different time scales. Stable isotope profiles (d13C) performed in tooth enamel will give information regarding the horse’s diet during the first 2-4 years of life, and the measurement of strontium isotope ratios 87Sr/86Sr will document animal movement during this time period. A similar approach will be undertaken on keratinized tissues in order to document features of their individual history during the last month prior to slaughter. The comparison between individual isotope profiles will determine if the horses originate from a single herd or not.

The Altay region has provided other similar archaeological sites (Arzhan 2, Ukok plateau) yielding organic remains, which could also be investigated using the stable isotope approach. Finally, another set of data is available in the desert of Taklamakan (Xinjiang province, RPC) where contemporaneous series have been discovered. The conditions of preservation are very different (humans and horses are preserved as dry mummies), but the information that can be extracted from these remains located south of the Altay region is also potentially very important. Due to the quality of the remains unearthed and the use of new analytical techniques, the excavation and analysis of these archaeological sites bring data that renew our understanding of Scythian nomadic societies. The goal of this post-doctoral project is to participate to this renewal. The details of the research program can be adjusted based on the background and expertise of the successful candidate.

Candidat profile

Candidates must have a strong publication record and a previous expertise in stable isotope measurements performed in organic matter or biomineralizations and applied to paleontology and archaeology.

Duration of project

1 year.

Laboratory of project

UMR 5197
Ile-de-France Est (03): http://www.dr3.cnrs.fr/
Archéozoologie, histoire des sociétés humaines et des peuplements animaux
Paris
http://www.mnhn.fr/mnhn/anc/esa/esa.html

Contact

Vigne Jean-Denis
01 40 79 33 10
vigne@mnh.fr