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Join the laboratory From Prehistory to Present: Culture, Environment and Anthropology (PACEA) – of the University of Bordeaux!

PACEA is a joint research unit attached to the CNRS (Ecology & Environment), the University of Bordeaux and the Ministry of Culture. At the interface of biological, environmental and human sciences, its work addresses major questions related to the factors that have shaped humanity, enabling our ancestors to settle on all continents thanks to adaptive capacities whose diversity we are currently exploring.

As part of the Human Past Major Research Program (GPR), we are recruiting a Research Engineer W/M in Paleospeleology.

“Human Past” aims to document, characterize and understand the tipping points that have induced major biological and cultural changes within past human populations. Spanning a large chronological period (from Prehistory to historical times), our research aims to identify the steps that enabled a primate originally adapted to African ecosystems to evolve into a species that occupies and impacts every ecosystem on the planet. Biological and social systems will be scrutinized at different scales from a multitude of perspectives with particular attention paid to phenotypic and genetic variability, cognition, technology, social organization, belief systems, and genetic and cultural adaptive strategies that drive human societies.

Main activities:

The study of Palaeolithic art has to date mainly focused on the paintings and engravings present in hundreds of subterranean contexts, yet relatively little attention has been paid to the global phenomenon of the cultural use of caves. We build upon both existing and new data to draw an overarching history of the relationship between Palaeolithic and Mesolithic communities, and underground world. Our results will improve our understanding of the motivations behind the use of caves by Neanderthals and modern humans in western Europe. 

The project aligns perfectly with the objectives of WP4-Action 3 “How did symbolic systems emerge and how did they affect societal organisation?”.

Study the anthropogenic deposits in the Neanderthalian Bruniquel and Cussac, presumed Gravettian caves using ‘speleofacts’: identify structures, carry out 3D surveys, establish their relative and radio-digital diachronic, test pairings, understand their topographical logic in the general context of the site occupied by the respective human groups and, as far as possible, interpret their function.

As part of two major missions within: 

1. The Bruniquel cave (mid-2026), where you will work in interaction with other leaders of the cave’s study areas
2. The cave of Cussac, Salle de la Découverte you will integrate the current monograph then for the Méandre 12 of the Upstream branch (start-up in 2027)

• You identify the structures
• You carry out the surveys on a 3D basis
• You establish their relative and radio-digital diachrony, test pairings, determine their topographic logic in the general context of the site invested by the respective human groups and, as far as possible, interpret the function
• You are actively contributing to the writing of a summary article on the Bruniquel Cave scheduled for late 2026 – early 2027
• You take part in the preparation of the report related to the field mission at the Cave of Cussac and draft a summary article on the subject
• You are participating in the session of the next Prehistoric Congress of France Clermont-Ferrand in June 2026