Abstract
To propose a palaeodemographic reconstitution from skeletal data, criteria accessible from historical and archaeological data must be used and, as a demographic study directly based upon archaeological data is not possible, tools must be defined to take account of osteological constraints. This chapter examines available tools and proposes some adaptations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
It is not possible to enter them directly into the life tables established by demographers.
- 2.
This method corresponds to what Daniel Courgeau in Chap. 12 calls the “Proportional Fitting Procedure (PFP)” or “ALK method” (Age Length Key), without the I for Iterative, because when these methods are applied in palaeodemography they are not really iterative and need to stop after the first loop.
- 3.
On the basis of isotope analyses, Estelle Herrscher (2003) estimates that the mediaeval children buried at Saint-Laurent, Grenoble, were weaned between ages 2.6 and 3.3 years.
- 4.
Since the Middle Ages, confirmation has occurred at various ages, usually between 12 and 14 years.
- 5.
Using the age of 17 as the upper limit for the immature population makes it possible, in a site study, to link the results obtained with those calculated for the adult population (ages 18 and above) with the probability vector method.
- 6.
Using 1-year age classes for adults whose ages cover 77 years (from ages 18 to 94) would have given only a dozen individuals on average per age class. Together with the fine detail of the biological observations, segmented into 41 suture closure coefficients, this would have caused an unacceptable fragmentation of the data.
- 7.
- 8.
Chapter 13 also shows how specific situations can be simply and effectively taken into account by the estimation method it proposes.
- 9.
In the sense of proven demographic situations that can be re-used in similar contexts.
- 10.
Half the tables before the twentieth century and some more contemporary ones concern countries that had not yet begun their demographic and public health transition. The sample was extended to 45 tables in 2002 (Bocquet-Appel 2002).
- 11.
The problem can be solved by applying the properties of a normal distribution: starting from estimated age and its standard deviation, many software packages can calculate the likelihood of belonging to one age class or the other.
- 12.
Bocquet-Appel and Masset propose a relationship based on the juvenility index \( \left(\frac{D_{5-14}}{D_{20+}}\right) \) and the senility index \( \left(\frac{D_{60-\omega }}{D_{20+}}\right) \). Unfortunately, the latter is hard to define by anthropological analysis. Since there are currently no criteria for assessing the growth rate of buried populations or for distinguishing its sign, only assumptions can be made, which is why the authors proposed regressions for various annual growth rates.
- 13.
Calculated like Halley’s table by considering all individuals deceased after age x + a to be survivors at age x. Thus 5q5 represents the ratio \( \left(\frac{D_{5-9}}{D_{5+}}\right) \).
- 14.
Although this name does not correspond to the mathematical method used (see Chap. 12).
- 15.
Adult mean age at death correlates weakly with the earliest probabilities of death, unlike the juvenility index. Combining two age indicators that contain different information provides a better estimate of demographic parameters.
- 16.
We prefer to denote it P 5–19 to avoid any confusion with the probability of survival at ages 5–19.
References
Bergot, C., & Bocquet, J.-P. (1976). Étude systématique en fonction de l’âge de l’os spongieux et de l’os cortical de l’humérus et du fémur. Bulletins et mémoires de la Société d’anthropologie de Paris, 3, 215–242.
Bintliff, K., & Sbonias, J. (Eds.). (1999). Reconstruction of past population trends in Mediterranean Europe (3000 bc-ad 1800) (The archaeology of the Mediterranean landscape, Vol. 1). Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P. (2002). Palaeoanthropological traces of a neolithic demographic transition. Current Anthropology, 43(4), 637–650.
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P. (2005). La paléodémographie. In O. Dutour, J.-J. Hublin, B. Vandermeersch (Eds.), Objets et méthodes en paléoanthropologie (pp. 271–313). Paris: Éditions du Comité des Travaux historiques et scientifiques. Version corrected since publication available at. http://www.evolhum.cnrs.fr/bocquet/cths05.pdf
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P., & Bacro, J.-N. (2008). Estimation of an age distribution with its confidence intervals using an iterative Bayesian procedure and a bootstrap sampling approach. In J.-P. Bocquet-Appel (Ed.), Recent advances in palaeodemography. Data, techniques, patterns (pp. 63–82). Dordrecht: Springer Verlag.
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P., & Masset, C. (1977). Estimateurs en paléodémographie. L’Homme, 17(4), 65–90.
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P., & Masset, C. (1982). Farewell to palaeodemography. Journal of Human Evolution, 11, 321–333.
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P., & Masset, C. (1985). Palaeodemography: Resurrection or ghost? Journal of Human Evolution, 14, 107–111.
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P., & Masset, C. (1995). L’âge au décès dans les populations inhumées: comparaison de méthodes et de résultats. Antropologia Portuguesa, 13, 39–48.
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P., & Masset, C. (1996). Palaeodemography: Expectancy and false hope. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 99, 571–583.
Buchet, L., & Séguy, I. (1999). Ancien cimetière d’Antibes. Réflexions méthodologiques en paléodémographie. Rapport d’analyse, SRA de PACA.
Buchet, L., & Séguy, I. (2003). “Les fouilles de l’ancien cimetière d’Antibes (06): aspects paléodémographiques “. Mémoires de l’Institut de préhistoire et d’archéologie Alpes Méditerranée, XLV, Nice, 309–318.
Buchet, L., & Séguy, I. (2008). “L’âge au décès des enfants: âge civil, âge biologique, âge social?”. In F. Gusi, S. Muriel, C. Olària (coord.) (Eds.), Nasciturus, Infans, Puerulus Vobis Mater Terra. La muerte en la infancia/La mort dans l’enfance/La mort a l’infancia/The death in the childhood (pp. 25–39), Castelló de la Plana, Servicio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Prehistóricas, Colección de Prehistoria y Arqueología.
Buchet, L., Séguy, I., & Gallien, V. (2004). À quel âge sont-ils morts? Âge “individuel” et âge “collectif. Archéopages, 14, 16–23.
Buchet, L., Séguy, I., Suchecki, M., Belaigues-Rossard, M. (2006). “Estimation de l’âge au décès des immatures par le degré de minéralisation”. In L. Buchet, C. Dauphin, I. Séguy (Eds.), La paléodémographie. Mémoire d’os, mémoire d’hommes (Actes des 8es Journées anthropologiques de Valbonne, juin 2003), Antibes: Éditions APDCA, pp. 289–296.
Buikstra, J. E., Konigsberg, L. W., & Bullington, J. (1986). Fertility and the development of agriculture in the prehistoric Midwest. American Antiquity, 51, 528–546.
Herrscher, E. (2003). Alimentation d’une population historique: analyse des données isotopiques de la nécropole Saint-Laurent de Grenoble (xiii e- xv e siècle, France). Bulletins et mémoires de la Société d’anthropologie de Paris, 15(3–4), 145–320.
İşcan, M. Y. (1989). Age markers in human skeletons. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas.
Jackes, M. K. (1986). “The mortality of ontario archaeological populations”. In S. Pfeiffer (Ed.), “The skeletal biology of ontario populations”. Canadian Journal of Anthropology/Revue canadienne d’anthropologie physique, 5, 33–48.
Jackes, M. K. (1988) “Demographic change at Mesolithic-Neolithic transition: Evidence from Portugal”. Rivista di Antropologia, suppl. del, LXVI, 141–158.
Konigsberg, L. W., & Frankenberg, S. R. (2002). Deconstructing death in palaeodemography. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 117, 297–309.
Konigsberg, L. W., Buikstra, J. E., & Bullington, J. (1989). Palaeodemographic correlates of fertility: A reply to Corruccini, Brandon, Handler and Holland. American Antiquity, 54(3), 626–636.
Langenscheidt, F. (1985). “Methodenkritische Untersuchungen zur Paläodemographie am Beispiel zweier fränkischer Gräberfelder”. Materialen für Bevölkerungswissenschaft, 2.
Ledermann, S. (1969). Nouvelles tables-types de mortalité (coll. “Travaux et documents, Vol. 53). Paris: INED.
Masset, C. (1982). “Estimation de l’âge au décès par les sutures crâniennes”. PhD thesis, université Paris Diderot Paris 7.
Masset, C. (1989). Age estimation on the basis of the cranial sutures. In M. Y. İşcan (Ed.), Age markers in human skeletons (pp. 71–103). Springfield: Charles C. Thomas.
Masset, C., & Parzysz, B. (1985). Démographie des cimetières? Incertitude statistique des estimateurs en paléodémographie. L’Homme, XXV(2), 147–154.
Murail, P., & Sellier, P. (1995). “Farewell to estimators”. Paper presented at the XVIes Rencontres internationales d’Archéologie et d’Histoire d’Antibes, October 1995, Paper abstracts.
Sauter, M.-R., & Simon, C. (1980). La paléoanthropologie et la paléodémographie: leurs buts, leurs méthodes et leurs limites. Archives suisses d’anthropologie générale, 44(1), 35–44.
Séguy, I., & Signoli, M. (2007). Caractérisation des crises démographiques en Basse-Provence (1650–1730). In M. Signoli, D. Chevé, P. Adalian, G. Boëtsch, & O. Dutour (Eds.), Peste: entre épidémies et sociétés/Plague: Epidemics and Societies (pp. 197–204). Florence: Firenze University Press. Atti 28.
Séguy, I., Couvert, N., Belaigues-Rossard, M., & Bringé, A. (2006b). Des tables-types de mortalité pour les populations pré-industrielles. In L. Buchet, C. Dauphin, & I. Séguy (Eds.), La paléodémographie. Mémoire d’os, mémoire d’hommes (Actes des 8 es Journées anthropologiques de Valbonne, juin 2003) (pp. 303–321). Antibes: APDCA.
Sellier, P. (1996). “La mise en évidence d’anomalies démographiques et leur interprétation: population, recrutement et pratiques funéraires du tumulus de Courtesoult”. In J.-F. Piningre (Ed.), Nécropoles et société au premier âge du fer: le tumulus de Courtesoult (Haute-Saône), coll. “Documents d’Archéologie Française”, 54, (pp. 136–142 et pp. 188–200). Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.
Signoli, M., Séguy, I., & Buchet, L. (2005). Les populations historiques. Le recrutement funéraire à travers trois échantillons paléodémographiques. In O. Dutour, J.-J. Hublin, & B. Vandermeersch (Eds.), Origine et évolution des populations humaines (pp. 241–257). Paris: Éditions du Comité des Travaux historiques et scientifiques.
Theureau, C. (1998). “La population archéologique de Tours (iv e- xvii e siècles). Étude anthropologique”, Revue archéologique du Centre de la France (Recherches sur Tours, 7), suppl. 14.
Wrigley, E. A., Davies, R. S., Oeppen, J. E., & Schofield, R. S. (1997). English population history from family reconstitution, 1580–1837. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Séguy, I., Buchet, L. (2013). Age at Death: Current Approaches and Methods. In: Handbook of Palaeodemography. INED Population Studies, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01553-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01553-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-01552-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-01553-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)