Rural Riches - The bottom-up development of post-Roman north-western Europe (450-640) -Elites and centres in Northern Gaul

The ERC funded project ‘Rural Riches’ invites applicants for a fully funded PhD on the subject of ‘Elites and Towns in Merovingian Northern Gaul’. Your PhD project is part of the project which aims to contribute substantially to the age-old debate on the origins of the European economy and to a general debate on the role of the mass of the population in economic processes in the past. You will closely work together with the members of the research group, conducting the research, discussing each other’s progress within the project and working with affiliated institutions and scholars.

The question of how Europe overcame the collapse of the Roman state in the West has been the subject of popular and academic debate for more than a century. The ‘fall of Rome’ and its societal consequences in the West are often perceived as one of the continent’s most severe crises. Whereas the focus of academic interest was on the understanding of this crisis and subsequent economic recovery through a consideration of the role of aristocrats, kingship and the church, the role of the rural population in the transformation from ‘Late Roman’ to ‘Medieval Europe’ has been given little consideration. In this project, the importance of the elite’s role vis-à-vis that of the rural population in the recovery of the early medieval economy is questioned.
The research question you project aims to address is: In what ways did an elite, the church and the ‘state’ (king) have control over and extract surplus from the rural population in the period and area under consideration?

Further under ‘ADDITIONAL INFORMATION’

• (R)MA in early medieval Archaeology, preferably with a thesis on an early medieval subject;
• Highly motivated with excellent communications skills (writing, presenting, discussing);
• Team spirit, highly motivated to cooperate with the members of the research group;
• Independent work attitude and ability to critically evaluate commonly accepted theories and concepts in archaeology on burial rites and urbanization;
• English (B2 level or above);
• Dutch (B2 level or above);
• Skills in the reading of French texts (desired);
• Skills in the reading of German texts (desired).

We offer a position for 38 hours per week. The PhD is based in Leiden, starts September 2018. The appointment as a PhD student will be for a period of four years (initially for a period of one year with an extension of three years after positive evaluation of progress and skills development) leading to the successful completion of a PhD thesis. The appointment will be under the terms of the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities. The gross monthly salary is set on €2,222 in the first year, increasing to €2,840 gross per month in the final year.

Leiden University offers an attractive benefits package with additional holiday (8%) and end- of-year bonuses (8.3 %), training and career development and sabbatical leave. Our individual choices model gives you some freedom to assemble your own set of terms and conditions. Candidates from outside the Netherlands may be eligible for a substantial tax break. More at https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/working-at/job-application-procedure-and-employment-conditions.  

Diversity
Leiden University is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from members of underrepresented groups.