Brief communication: estimates of some demographic parameters in a Neolithic rock-cut chamber (approximately 2000 BC) using iterative techniques for aging and demographic estimators
Bocquet-Appel, J.P.; Bacro, J.N.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 102(4): 569-575
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9483 PMID: 9140546 DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199704)102:4<569::aid-ajpa11>3.0.co;2-zDocument Number: 375957
Two new techniques-one anthropological, which estimates the mean age at death for adult skeletons, the other demographic, which gives main survivorship curve parameters-are used on a sample of skeletons (N approximately 170) discovered in a Neolithic rock-cut chamber (Loisy-en-Brie, France). The iterative technique for aging used a stochastic sampled F matrix derived from the trabecular involution of the femoral head observed in the reference collection of Coimbra (Portugal; N = 421). The results, obtained from techniques and data, independent of each other, are strongly consistent. Overall, they give a life expectancy at birth of about 25-28 years and the probability of death at 1 and 5 years, respectively, of about .271-.249 and .429-.380.