Abstract
The demographic approach to buried populations can be now re-examined with the new “tools” proposed in this handbook. Some of the recurrent questions of palaeodemography, such as the problem of estimating the proportion of under-20s, as well as new research topics, can be explored from four case studies. For two of them, only biological data are available (burial grounds from Late Antiquity comprehensively excavated and covered by thorough historical, archaeological and anthropological studies). The last two are sites with extensive written documentation that provide information on the demographic behaviour of the exhumed populations.
The analysis of these sites is not necessarily complete nor is the discussion closed.
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Notes
- 1.
We use the PFP method, under its first definition (see Chap. 12), starting from the age distribution within a given stage. The fitting process therefore requires no iteration. The reference population used is fixed in geographical and chronological terms (nineteenth century Portugal, but representative of pre-industrial populations).
- 2.
Excavations directed by Christian Pilet (CRAHAM, Caen, France), (Pilet 1980); anthropological study by Luc Buchet (CEPAM, Nice, France) (Buchet 1978, 1998).
- 3.
The grave lengths varied from 0.8 to 1.5 m; since the body occupied on average 65–70 % of this length (allowing for coffins), the height of the bodies buried there must have ranged from 0.50 to 1.40 m, corresponding to children under 10 years old.
- 4.
With a distribution by 5-year group, the central age-point is defined more precisely (a = x + 2.5) than with 10-year groups (a = x + 5), leading to a slight variation in the calculated mean age at death (56.07 and 55.92 years, respectively). The sample size here is sufficient to justify calculation from 5-year groups.
- 5.
Some skeletons were not sufficiently well preserved to observe spheno-occipital fusion, which is a good indicator of entry into adulthood.
- 6.
Note that similar values of α and β will naturally provide an age distribution at death close to this one, but mean adult age at death can vary (for example, with α = −0.25 and β = 1.3, the age distribution of deaths is virtually identical but the mean age at death is 56.68 years). It is not so much the value of the palaeodemographic indicator that must be considered first, but rather the mortality trends in the two age groups that modify the model.
- 7.
Saint-Martin-de-Fontenay (Calvados, France): excavations directed by Christian Pilet (CRAHAM, Caen, France); anthropological study: Armelle Alduc-Le Bagousse (CRAHAM, Caen, France) and Luc Buchet (CEPAM, Nice, France). Publication: Pilet et al. 1994.
- 8.
The burial ground was excavated in four consecutive field seasons from 1990 to 1993. Excavations directed by Didier Paillard. Anthropological study: Armelle Alduc-Le Bagousse and Luc Buchet.
- 9.
An initial estimate of the fourth-century population of Lisieux was proposed in 2006 (Paillard et al. 2006). Since then, more refined methods have been used to calculate new estimates, and the results are presented here.
- 10.
This is confirmed by a chi-square test. The observed value of χ2 is 11.414, and since the p-value (0.022) is below the chosen threshold (0.05), the null hypothesis (that the proportions are constant) cannot be confirmed. At least one proportion differs from the others.
- 11.
Probable age distribution at death estimated from stages of tooth mineralisation.
- 12.
The low number of subjects of indeterminate sex gives these variations in the sex ratio a high level of significance.
- 13.
The probabilities calculated with the Z-test display a significant difference at the 0.05 threshold between the numbers for the first quarter of the fourth century and those of the early fifth century. There is only a weakly significant difference (0.08 level) between the last quarter of the fourth century and the start of the fifth century.
- 14.
The mean adult age at death was calculated by the method proposed in this book, using the utility available on the INED website (reference population Lisbon 1889, distribution by 5-year age groups).
- 15.
The presence at this site of a large number of children makes it possible to calculate a juvenility index for each quarter-century.
- 16.
We are grateful to Daniel Courgeau for developing Alfred J. Lotka’s formula (1939, p. 20): P(a) = N * e −ρa * p(a), where P(a) is the population of age (a), N the number of births in that year; ρ the instantaneous population growth rate; p(a) the probability of survival from birth to age (a), and adapting it to a cemetery population under the hypothesis of a Malthusian population with a constant growth rate (here, the number of deaths does not equal the number of births and life expectancy at birth does not equal mean age at death).
- 17.
An earlier work (Signoli et al. 2005) contains a study of these sites using a different calculation method, based on Masset’s (1982) proposed probability vectors.
- 18.
Excavation: Philippe Soulier, Christian Toupet and Jean-Yves Langlois; anthropological analyses by Christine Dumont, Bertille Danion and Jean-Yves Langlois, reviewed by Véronique Gallien; documentary research: Monique Wabont.
- 19.
The age distribution of deaths results from a combination of two demographic phenomena: the age structure of the population and its mortality distribution. It is preferable to use the distribution of deceased women taken from the life table (D x ) rather than the age distribution of deaths observed in parish registers (d x ). This makes it possible to measure the impact of mortality independently from the age structure of the population.
- 20.
For PMaubuisson1677-1791, the risk of rejecting a true null hypothesis is 94.53 %, exactly the same as for PLisbon1889 (94.53 %).
- 21.
An initial approach to this question and a discussion of palaeodemographic models were published in 2003 (Buchet et al. 2003).
- 22.
Excavation led by Philippe Vidal, AFAN-Mediterranean unit (AFAN is now INRAP: Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives).
- 23.
The difference between values based on death records and those based on the mortality distribution is due to large migrant inflows to Antibes, notably in the late nineteenth century, and to the emergence of a new category of migrants, namely retirees.
- 24.
In particular, assuming the following to be negligible quantities: transported remains (Antibes residents deceased elsewhere and buried in Antibes), those lost at sea, non-residents deceased in Antibes and buried in their place of origin (whose death is recorded in the civil records but whose place of burial is unknown).
- 25.
Source: Antibes municipal archives – 1F2 827.
- 26.
The annual growth rate was fairly low between 1876 and 1881, roughly 0.63 %, taking the population to 6,795. By the end of the century, however, Antibes saw rapid population growth (some 3 % per year) and its 1897 population can be estimated at approximately 9,610.
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Séguy, I., Buchet, L. (2013). Examples of Archaeological Applications. In: Handbook of Palaeodemography. INED Population Studies, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01553-8_11
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