ProfessorDan Penny

Project Opportunities

Title: Disruption and persistence: resolving the Maya climate-collapse hypothesis

Summary of opportunity:

This project will to test the climate-catastrophe theory of the Classic ‘Maya Collapse' of the 8-11th centuries A.D., by generating a detailed record of climate and human response from an historic Maya city known to have survived the Collapse.  We will reveal how some historic urban centres developed resilience to climate variability over long timespans while others did not, and determine the implications for the relative vulnerability of our own cities.

Opportunity synopsis:

This project will determine why some historic cities are more vulnerable to climatic instability than others. Focusing on the archetypal urban collapse of the Maya, in modern Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, during the 8th-11th centuries of the common era (C.E.), this project will question the dominant narrative of social failure, loss and catastrophe derived from the material disintegration of major urban centres, and seek evidence for persistence, resilience, transformation and adaptation.  The aim of this project is to test the climate-collapse theory of the Classic ‘Maya Collapse' by reconstructing a detailed, uninterrupted history of climate and human response from historic Maya cities known to have survived the Classic Maya Collapse. As part of an international team of researchers, you will undertake a range of analyses on sediment archives from lake sites proximal to key archaeological sites in north Belize. Suitable for earth scientists, physical geographers, or archaeologists with a specialisation in environmental or geoarchaeology.

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Project Opportunities

Title: Urbanism after Angkor (14th-18th century): re-defining Collapse

Summary of opportunity:

The collapse of the medieval city of Angkor, in modern Cambodia, and its kingdom created an historical ‘dark age' that we believe is more apparent than real.  Applying a multi-disciplinary landscape archaeology approach to this ‘dark age' of SE Asian history allows the demise of low-density urbanism and the development of new towns to be embedded within a dynamic environmental context. Understanding the transformations that followed the breakdown of low-density urbanism has global implications.

Opportunity synopsis:

This project will focus on developing sediment-based records of land cover change from the so-called ‘middle period' cities that grew to prominence in the wake of Angkor's demise. Palaeo-environmental records of demise and occupation are critical for identifying the impact of new settlements and the expansion of urban centres during and after Angkor's demise. The diminution of land use in and around the ‘old' centres and the intensification of land use in and around the ‘new' towns of the Middle Period will be manifest in environmental proxies preserved in sedimentary archives (pollen spores, algae, charcoal and chemical pollutants), allowing estimates of rates and degrees of reforestation and land clearance. As part of a well-established international team of researchers with more than 120 years of cumulative experience in the region, you will take advantage of an exciting and dynamic research environment that draws together leading scholars from Australia, Cambodia, France, UK and the USA.

----------Current Research Projects-------------------------

Drought Histories of Vietnam (2019 ongoing)

School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney

National University of Singapore

Wonders of the Mekong Project (2019 ongoing)

School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney

University of Nevada, Reno USA

Maya Resilience Project (2018 ongoing)

School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney

Australian Catholic University

University of Texas Austin

MIT

University College London

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

Greater Angkor Project (2001 ongoing)

Department of Archaeology and the School of Geosciences

APSARA Authority (Cambodia)

École Française d'Exrtême-Orient (France)

Cambodian Crater Lakes Project (2010 ongoing)

School of Geosciences

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University (USA)

Ministry of Environment (Cambodia)