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Handbook of Palaeodemography pp 53–81Cite as

Establishing a Reference Population

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Part of the book series: INED Population Studies ((INPS,volume 2))

Abstract

The grounding of our approach must be broad and stable, so that future research can build upon commonly recognized components. To that end, our work must comply with a few essential rules that are outlined below.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Our warmest thanks to Claude Masset for making all the data available to us.

  2. 2.

    A 3-year period was also tried, but this still exhibited artificial irregularities (in annual age classes). However, after placing the individuals in 5-year age classes, the results obtained were close to those given above.

  3. 3.

    16 women and 42 men.

  4. 4.

    Yann Ardagna presents a comprehensive inventory in his thesis (defended 2004, Marseille): “The conservation of biological archives and associated documents in biological anthropology. Applications for French and Hungarian anthropological collections”.

  5. 5.

    Anthropological study: Luc Buchet and Marième Bouali (October 2006). This series will be called the “Museum collection” when it is distinguished from those of Ferraz de Macedo and the University of Coimbra.

    We wish to express our warmest gratitude to Maria da Graça Ramalhinho, director of the Museu Nacional de História Natural (MNHN) and Hugo Cardoso, anthropologist at the Museu Bocage, MNHN, for their help and hospitality during our stay in Lisbon.

  6. 6.

    This later obliteration of female sutures was noted by Mihály Lenhossék in 1917 (cited by Abdelhamid Grait in his biological and medical science dissertation: “Determination of age at death from the postcranial skeleton”, University of Lyon I, 2006, http://anthropologie-et-palaeopathologie.univ-lyon1.fr).

  7. 7.

    Since Ferraz de Macedo’s collection has been totally destroyed, the sutures can no longer be re-interpreted to determine with certainty whether a specific male suture closure pattern exists.

  8. 8.

    We looked for a distribution presenting a ratio between successive coefficients very similar to that observed for women (i.e. ≈ 0.62).

  9. 9.

    Source for the 1890 census: Censo da População do Reino de Portugal no 1 de Dezembro de 1890. Volume II. Lisboa, Direcção da Estatística Geral e Comércio, 1896 (INED shelfmark: S2Q 1890/2). The age pyramid, established for 1 December 1890, was extrapolated back to 1 July 1889, the nearest date to the death of the individuals under study.

    Source for the 1889 death records: Movimento da População. Terceiro ano 1889–1890. Lisboa, Ministério das Finanças, Direcção Geral da Estatística, 1892 (INED shelfmark: S3 Q 1889–1890).

  10. 10.

    This is true for late nineteenth-century Lisbon, but is also more generally applicable to pre-industrial populations. For example, the proportions of deaths before and after age 50 in France in 1770–1779 were 35 % and 65 % (based on Blayo 1975).

  11. 11.

    In the original Masset collection, 59 % of all women and 65 % of men were aged under 50.

  12. 12.

    Number of men per 100 women.

  13. 13.

    The joint between the sphenoid and occipital bones in the skull base.

  14. 14.

    They can always be brought back in later, either with the 20–29 age group, as anthropologists do, or with younger groups, as demographers do (15–19 age group).

  15. 15.

    The chi-squared test comparing the two distributions is non-significant at 2.5 % level for both sexes combined, at 1 % for men and at 1.2 % for women. The observed mortality distribution for Lisbon does not significantly differ, therefore, from that defined by the pre-industrial mortality standard. Female mortality in Lisbon between ages 25 and 45 is lower than that in the Pre-industrial Standard. In the light of the remarks we have made concerning the male sample, this under-estimation of female mortality is highly plausible given the biases in late nineteenth-century Lisbon’s statistical data (erroneous age declarations, under-recording of certain population categories in censuses, inaccuracies in 10-year age groups for counting annual deaths).

  16. 16.

    At higher ages, women are more numerous than men.

  17. 17.

    The multiplier α = 521/473.

  18. 18.

    Each suture segment is graded from 0 to 4. Divisions of 10th or even 50th may be used to calculate the coefficient. For the sake of convenience, we have multiplied these values by 10.

  19. 19.

    Although it is essential to adapt a reference population to the pre-industrial model (PLisbon1889 and below, PMaubuisson and PAntibes1890) when using the probability vector method, this is no longer the case when using estimation methods based on a constant distribution of stages by age group (see Chaps. 12 and 13). Nevertheless, careful thought must be given to the way reference collections are constituted before attempting to estimate the age at death of a buried population. Whatever methodology is used, the quality of the estimates depends on the representativeness of the biological characteristics observed in the reference collection (of known age and sex).

  20. 20.

    Emergence is complete when the tooth breaks through the gum.

  21. 21.

    Our warmest thanks go to all those who have forwarded to us the orthopantomograms necessary for establishing the reference population, friends, colleagues and practitioners, working in the Alpes-Maritimes département. In this last group, the following deserve special mention: Drs Kamilla-André and Terrasson (Cagnes-sur-Mer), Chaussy, Lachaud and R蝐cker (Cannes), Savoye (Le Cannet), Bougues (Marmande), Dossios, Favot, Jasmin, Mahler, Millet and Raybaud (Nice), and Alibert (Sophia Antipolis)

    We are very grateful for the invaluable help provided by Eve-Line Boulle and MariÒme Bouali for data entry, Magali Belaigues-Rossard, Nicolas Lannoy and Magali Sucheki for statistical analysis. We also warmly acknowledge Arnaud BringÕ, whose initial results were published in 2005 and 2006, for his close collaboration on this study, (Buchet et al. 2005, 2006c).

  22. 22.

    In all, 715 dental x-rays of children aged 2–18 were analysed. We excluded from the sample the 17 individuals aged 18–20, in line with our biological distinction between juveniles and adults. A certain number of x-rays of children aged 2–17 were withdrawn (21 in all), usually where there had been one or more therapeutic extractions or where the extent of mineralisation diverged too far from the average distribution (recording errors or pathology).

  23. 23.

    The Roman series (second-early third century AD) came from the Isola Sacra necropolis, 23 km west of Rome. It comprised some 2,000 individuals (of whom 800 children) of both sexes and all ages. The nineteenth-century series belongs to St Thomas’s Anglican Church, Belleville, Ontario. It comprises 1,564 skeletons, of whom 282 children under 15. Of these, 229 were sufficiently well preserved for dental examination.

  24. 24.

    A team of dentists and biostatisticians (Parner et al. 2001) investigated any possible trend over time in the eruption of permanent teeth by analysing two samples of Danish schoolchildren from 1969 to 1982. They observed a slight but statistically significant increase in mean age for both sexes and all teeth (with 95 % CI: 1.5 days per year for boys and 2.6 for girls). However, the interval between the two samples was short and the public health conditions in the years concerned cannot be compared to those of pre-industrial populations.

  25. 25.

    Excluding the third molar, or wisdom tooth, because of the wide variation in its eruption and mineralisation.

  26. 26.

    Since mineralisation occurs symmetrically (0.92 > r > 1) for permanent and deciduous teeth, either the left or right jaw can be used.

  27. 27.

    There are special places for infant graves, but archaeological digs do not always have the time, or luck, to reach them.

  28. 28.

    Average age at skeletal maturity is indicated both by the fusion of the sphenoid and occipital and acceleration of the process of epiphyseal closure that marks the end of growth in a skeleton. Various authors place the age of maturity between 18 and 20 for the skull and 20 and 25 for the post-cranium (for example, the proximal humeral epiphysis is fused by age 25, like the distal epiphyses of the radius and ulna).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unité Histoire et Population, INED, Paris, France

    Isabelle Séguy

  2. CEPAM, UMR 7264 (CNRS, UNS), Nice, France

    Luc Buchet

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  1. Isabelle Séguy
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Séguy, I., Buchet, L. (2013). Establishing a Reference Population. In: Handbook of Palaeodemography. INED Population Studies, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01553-8_4

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