PRR Project

Summary

Human Evolution and the field of Prehistoric Archaeology are now one of the main key areas of research for the University of Algarve. Various avenues lead to this fact: the growth of doctoral students (close to 30, both national and international) and respective dissertations in the PhD degree in Archaeology; the number of researchers investigating in Paleoanthropology and Human Evolution in UAlg, now more than 40 people, in addition to the 30 directly associated researchers from countries from all continents coming from many prestigious institutions (https://www.icarehb.com/team/); the presence of ICArEHB; the number of grants and field work projects spread all over Europe, Asia and Africa; and finally by the clear international  recognition of the high quality, risk, and cutting-edge research developed at UAlg as seen in the funding of three ERC grants, all in the area of Prehistoric Archaeology, i.e., MATRIX - Into the Sedimentary Matrix:  Mapping the Replacement of Neanderthals by early Modern Humans using micro-contextualized biomolecules (PI Vera Aldeias), DISPERSALS - Dispersals, resilience, and innovation in  Late Pleistocene SE Africa (PI Nuno Bicho), and FINISTERRA - Population Trajectories and Cultural Dynamics of late Neanderthals in Far Western Eurasia (PI João Cascalheira).In this context and considering the fact that UAlg is located in Southwestern Portugal, Iberian Human Evolution is one of the research areas with more relevance for UAlg and the ICArEHB. Many of our projects, students, and researchers work in the region and the team has produced many high-quality papers in the last years that are now the reference for the early Prehistory of Portugal and of Iberia. However, presently we do not have either a career researcher nor a senior researcher who can lead the research on Iberian Human Evolution in UAlg (Bicho is now Vice-rector for Research and Culture ay UAlg and his research is now mostly centered in Africa, particularly in Mozambique). It is, thus, vital for UAlg and ICArEHB to be able to create a Chair in Iberian Human Evolution for a senior career researcher.The chair-holder should have a PhD. in Archeology with a specialization in Iberian Paleolithic Archaeology as well as a vast field experience, both in Iberian Paleolithic and the Paleolithic or Stone Age in other regions. The chair-holder should have important experience as PI in various projects and as student supervisor, preferably of MA and Doctoral students, in addition to post-doc supervision. The publication record, particularly in the topic of the Chair, should be highly relevant and internationally recognized as such. Finally, the fund raising should be highly successful and diverse, preferably with demonstrated capacity to attract funds from EU programs such as ERC.The Chair-holder main task will be the coordination of all research in ICArEHB’s research theme Dynamics of Paleolithic people in Eurasia. This task includes, among other aspects, the development of strategic planning for the research group that includes researchers and students, both PhD and MA. This plan rovers over aspects of funding, higher education training, instrument and application development for fieldwork, and laboratory analysis. The chair-holder should also supervise one of ICArEHB laboratories (e.g., LARMAT or the DigiArch – please see next section with the info on ICArEHB’s laboratories). Finally, the chair-holder should also supervise doctoral students as well as have a teaching workload of 3 to 4 weekly hours, corresponding to a course a semester, that could potentially be one of the MA or PhD archaeological theory seminars and a course on Iberian Paleolithic.