This research analyzed bioarchaeological data from the Peruvian site of Túcume in an attempt to understand what the overall mortality profile may have been like, as well as what patterns may have been seen in juvenile and infant mortality. The primary data set, which consisted of estimated age-at-death values from previously excavated skeletal remains, was examined via three different models (Life Table, 5 Year Incremental, and Categorical), as well as compared to data from two other comparable sites (Pacatnamú and Farfán). It was found that individuals at Túcume were dying in unequal proportions across the age groups, ranging from newborn to approximately 65 years of age. Each of the three models displayed varying trends and, with the comparison between the three sites, differing mortality patterns were seen. The rate of fertility in the primary data set was calculated to have been high and may have had an effect on the mortality patterns. This research helps to fill a gap that exists within the literature and is important because of the importance of infants. While there is a biological draw towards reproduction, there is also the social aspect of it and the fact of the matter is that most individuals decide to have offspring simply because they want to. Infant mortality is a field of interest because, as a society, we want our young to live and identifying patterns or potential factors in their mortality is one of the first steps towards helping more of them do so successfully. Even though the data looked at here was from an archaeological context, analyzing ancient societies can provide us with the opportunity to gain knowledge and may be used as a reference point both in the present and for the future.

No description available.

Research on the estimation of age at death, sex and stature from skeletal remains has received more attention than methods used to evaluate ancestry. While this may be due to the stigma attached to classifying people into groups, the application, interpretation and precision of non-metric methods used to predict ancestry need to be examined; as these variables are routinely applied to forensic case work in South Africa. The aim of this study was to score fifteen non-metric cranial traits, namely nasal bone structure, nasal breadth, nasal overgrowth, anterior nasal spine, inferior nasal margin, interorbital breadth, zygomaxillary suture shape, malar tubercle, alveolar prognathism, mandibular and palatine tori, shovelshaped incisors, Carabelli’s cusps and the transverse palatine suture shape on a South African sample, with the intent to assess the influence of sex, ancestry and age at death on these facial features. A total of 520 crania were obtained from the Pretoria Bone, Raymond A. Dart and Kirsten Collections in South Africa and included 237 (135 males, 102 females) Africans, 158 (94 males, 63 females) Europeans and 125 (87 males, 38 females) persons of Coloured origin. Data were analyzed using SPSS v.11.5 for Windows. Ordinal regression was used to evaluate the effect the independent variables (age, sex and ancestry) had on the dependent variable (non-metric traits). Results showed that all the variables were associated with ancestral differences among and within groups. Interorbital breadth, nasal bone structure, nasal breadth and shovel-shaped incisors exhibited statistically significant interactions with sex and ancestry, whereas the appearance of the anterior nasal spine, alveolar prognathism, incisor shovelling of the upper incisors, and Carabelli’s cusp morphology were correlated with age at death. If traditional classification methods are used, then these non-metric traits are not a valid prediction of ancestry in South African populations. Future research is to focus on several statistical approaches, including multi-variate analysis, for the classification of non-metric traits. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Anatomy / unrestricted

Opinions on the relationship between non-specific stress and age at death on adults are not uniform. The inspiration for our diploma thesis was a study by Croatian authors Becic et al. (2014) who reported that individuals with non-specific stress indicators (cribra orbitalia) lived longer. Our aims were following: to estimate the longevity and compared influence of used methods on the relationship between non-specific stress and age at death, to test the relationship between age at death and non-specific stress indicators, particularly cribra orbitalia and linear enamel hypoplasia, and also to test the relationship between non-specific stress indicators and stature. Methods for age estimation are divided into two parts, methods used in the study Becic et al. (2014) and our method selection chosen from the literature appropriate for the oldest individuals. In this study, the presence of cribra orbitalia and enamel hypoplasia was observed in 294 adult individuals (111 women, 135 men and 48 undetermined individuals) from the Early Mediaeval (9th - 10th century) Slavic skeletal series at Mikulčice (Great Moravia), IIIrd church. When comparing age at death estimated by two different technics we found reduced age at death for the individuals with cribra orbitalia and also with enamel hypoplasia. There...

No / A revised method for estimating adult age at death using the auricular surface of the ilium has been developed. It is based on the existing auricular surface aging method of Lovejoy et al. ([1985] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 68:15-28), but the revised technique is easier to apply, and has low levels of inter- and intraobserver error. The new method records age-related stages for different features of the auricular surface, which are then combined to provide a composite score from which an estimate of age at death is obtained. Blind tests of the method were carried out on a known-age skeletal collection from Christ Church, Spitalfields, London. These tests showed that the dispersion of age at death for a given morphological stage was large, particularly after the first decade of adult life. Statistical analysis showed that the age-related changes in auricular surface are not significantly different for males and females. The scores from the revised method have a slightly higher correlation with age than do the Suchey-Brooks pubic symphysis stages. Considering the higher survival rates of the auricular surface compared with the pubic symphysis, this method promises to be useful for biological anthropology and forensic science.

This thesis presents an osteoarchaeological analysis of juvenile mortality profiles questioning the speculations made by some archaeologists that the under-representation of infants from Anglo-Saxon and medieval burial populations could be due to the practice of infanticide in England during these periods. Morphological and metrical age estimation and sex assessment methods are used to determine the age-at-death and sex of 1275 children from fifty-three Anglo-Saxon and medieval sites located in southern England. The age and sex distribution of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval children under six-years-old are then compared with age-specific United Nations demographic statistics see to whether or not a normative mortality profile is presented by the archaeological populations. This study identified an abnormal age-at-death distribution for the early Anglo-Saxon perinatal individuals. Excess female mortality was observed for the perinatal individuals from all three periods; early Anglo-Saxon, late Anglo-Saxon and medieval, and for the neonatal and infant individuals from the early Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods. The results of this osteoarchaeological analysis are discussed in conjunction with a review of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval documentary evidence which examines the possible social and economic motives for infanticide. Whilst this analysis of the historical sources revealed laws and penitentiary warnings against the neglect and deliberate murder of infants, the late Anglo-Saxon and medieval documents provided little evidence to suggest the social devaluation of women that would support a hypothesis of preferential female infanticide. There are few surviving early Anglo-Saxon documents however, so the significance of the abnormal mortality profiles from this period is considered.

Depuis les années soixante-dix, l’outil isotopique, d’abord développé en géochimie, s’est généralisé en anthropologie. Il est en effet susceptible d’apporter des informations métaboliques complémentaires à l’étude ostéologique, notamment sur la mobilité et l’alimentation des populations passées. Cependant, sur la trentaine d’éléments présente dans le corps humain, seuls six d’entre eux sont classiquement étudiés dans les ossements. Dès lors, les isotopes stables d’autres éléments représentent une source d’informations inexploitée. Ils pourraient effectivement contribuer aux questions cruciales que sont la diagnose sexuelle, l’estimation de la fécondité ou encore l’évaluation de l’âge au décès.Le but de ce travail de thèse est de comprendre l’origine de la variabilité isotopique du cuivre, du zinc et du fer dans le corps humain, et ainsi, d’évaluer l’apport potentiel de ces métaux de transition à l’anthropologie. Pour cela, les éléments ont été séparés par chromatographie sur résine échangeuse d’ions. Puis les rapports isotopiques ont été mesurés par spectrométrie de masse à source plasma et à multicollection (MC-ICP-MS).L’analyse du δ56Fe et δ65Cu de phalanges de squelettes du XVII-XVIIIèmes siècles provenant de Saint-Laurent de Grenoble a permis de mettre en évidence une différence isotopique entre hommes et femmes, reflet de celle observée dans le sang. Cette dissemblance isotopique est discutée à partir d’un modèle mathématique s’appuyant sur nos analyses du foie et de l’émail dentaire. Celui-ci nous a amenés à mettre en cause le rôle de la sollicitation hépatique dans la composition isotopique du sang plutôt que celui de l’absorption intestinale. L’étude du δ56Fe, δ65Cu et δ66Zn dans le sang d’une population française et d’une population yakoute a également contribué à dégager trois autres facteurs significatifs de variabilité isotopique : la ménopause, l’âge et le stress thermique.Nos résultats sont donc en faveur du développement de l’analyse des isotopes stables du Fe, Cu et Zn des restes humains en tant que vecteur potentiel d’informations sur leur âge au décès, âge à la ménopause, sexe et adaptation métabolique au froid. / First developed in geochemistry, isotopic analyses have progressively become a classical tool in anthropology since the seventies. They provide supplementary metabolic information to osteology, such as mobility or diet of past populations. However, isotopic studies only concern six elements among the thirty of the human body. Therefore, other elements could supply information on sex, age-at-death or fecundity, which still are crucial issues in anthropology.The aim of this thesis is to understand the origin of copper, iron and zinc isotopic variability in the human body, and to assess the contribution of these elements for anthropology. In order to do this, metals were purified from sample matrix by liquid chromatography on ion exchange resin and the isotope compositions were measured by multiple-collector inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). δ56Fe and δ65Cu analyses performed on phalanx of skeletons coming from a french cementery (Saint-Laurent de Grenoble) revealed an isotopic sex difference which mirrors the one found in blood. Concerning its origin, calculations and data obtained on dental enamel support the hypothesis that the isotopic sex difference is due to a higher metal hepatic solicitation for women rather than differential intestinal absorption between men and women. Blood isotopic data from French and Yakut population also highlighted three other significant factors of variability: menopause, age, and cold stress. Our results argue for the development of Fe, Cu, and Zn stable isotope analyses in human remains as a potential vehicle for information on age-at-death, age at menopause, sex and metabolic adaptation to cold stress of past populations.

Bakgrunn: Levealderen for personer med Downs syndrom har økt dramatisk på 1900 tallet i hele den vestlige verden. Imidlertid er det få undersøkelser om levealderfor denne populasjonen på 2000-tallet, og vi har ikke funnet noen norske undersøkelser. Hensikt:Undersøkelsen skal gi innsikt i levealdersutvikling i Norge fra 1969 og frem til 2010 og fremtidig forekomst av voksne og eldre med Downs syndrom frem til 2050. Metode:Det er en kvantitativ nasjonal demografisk registerundersøkelse for å beregne levealdersutviklingen for personer med Downs syndrom (n = 2 593). Registerdataene som er samlet inn er kontinuerlige data som er basert på løpende tellinger i den nasjonale fødsels-og dødelighetsstatistikken. Innsamlede data er personer registrert med diagnosekode Downs syndrom, årfødt, år død, alder ved død og kjønn. Hovedresultat:Gjennomsnittlig alder ved død for personer med Downs syndrom fra 1969 til og med 2009 økte fra 16,57 år til 53,40 år. Det var ingen statistisk signifikant forskjell på alder ved død mellom menn og kvinner. Gjennomsnittlig alder ved død for alle som døde etter fylte 40 år i studieperioden økte fra 53,95 år til 58,35 år. Forventet andel personer med Downs syndrom som vil bli 40 år og eldre vil øke fra 52 % for de som blefødt i 1967 til 94 % for de som ble født i 2009. Konklusjon:Levealderen for personer med Downs syndrom har økt betydelig fra 60-tallet og detteskyldes i hovedsak nedgang i spedbarnsdødeligheten. For de som overlever barneårene viser undersøkelsen imidlertid nesten ingen økning i rest levealder i løpet av undersøkelsesperioden. Frem til 2050 kan vi forvente en fordobling av antallet som vil være over 40 år / Background: Life expectancy for people with Down syndrome increased dramatically in the Western worldduringthe 1900s. However, fewsurveys have investigated life expectancy for this population since 2000,none of themNorwegian. Aim: This study aimedt o provide insight into life expectancy for Norwegians with Down syndrome between 1969 and2 010, and to project future rates for adults with Down syndrome until 2050. Method: This quantitative national demographic registry study estimated the development of life expectancy for people with Down syndrome (n = 2,593). To calculate age at death, we collected data from death certificates reported to Statistics Norway.Together with data from Medical Birth Registry,we simulated life tables.Collected data included persons with the diagnosis code for Down syndrome, birth year, year of death, age at death,and sex. Main results:Between 1969 and 2010, mean age at death of persons with Down syndrome increased from 16.57 years to 53.40 years, respectively. We observed no statistically significant difference in age at death between men and women. Average age at death for persons who died after 40 years of age increased from 53.95 years to 58.35 years duringthe study period. We estimated that the percentage of people with Down syndrome older than 40 years of age will increase, from 52% to 94% for those born in 1967 and 2009, respectively. Conclusion:Life expectancy for people with Down syndrome has increased significantly since the 1960s, mainly due to a relative decrease in newborn and infant mortality. Importantly, such individuals who survive childhood showed almost no increase in remaining life expectancy during the study period. By 2050,we expect the number of people with Down syndrome aged 40 or more years to double / <p>ISBN 978-91-86739-73-0</p>

This thesis presents an osteoarchaeological analysis of juvenile mortality profiles questioning the speculations made by some archaeologists that the under-representation of infants from Anglo-Saxon and medieval burial populations could be due to the practice of infanticide in England during these periods. Morphological and metrical age estimation and sex assessment methods are used to determine the age-at-death and sex of 1275 children from fifty-three Anglo-Saxon and medieval sites located in southern England. The age and sex distribution of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval children under six-years-old are then compared with age-specific United Nations demographic statistics see to whether or not a normative mortality profile is presented by the archaeological populations. This study identified an abnormal age-at-death distribution for the early Anglo-Saxon perinatal individuals. Excess female mortality was observed for the perinatal individuals from all three periods; early Anglo-Saxon, late Anglo-Saxon and medieval, and for the neonatal and infant individuals from the early Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods. The results of this osteoarchaeological analysis are discussed in conjunction with a review of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval documentary evidence which examines the possible social and economic motives for infanticide. Whilst this analysis of the historical sources revealed laws and penitentiary warnings against the neglect and deliberate murder of infants, the late Anglo-Saxon and medieval documents provided little evidence to suggest the social devaluation of women that would support a hypothesis of preferential female infanticide. There are few surviving early Anglo-Saxon documents however, so the significance of the abnormal mortality profiles from this period is considered. / Arts and Humanities Research Council

Yes / Age estimation methods are often based on the age-related morphological changes of the auricular surface and the pubic bone. In this study, a mathematical approach to quantify these changes has been tested analyzing the curvature variation on 3D models from CT and laser scans. The sample consisted of the 24 Suchey–Brooks (SB) pubic bone casts, 19 auricular surfaces from the Buckberry and Chamberlain (BC) “recording kit” and 98 pelvic bones from the Terry Collection (Smithsonian Institution). Strong and moderate correlations between phases and curvature were found in SB casts (ρ 0.60–0.93) and BC “recording kit” (ρ 0.47–0.75), moderate and weak correlations in the Terry Collection bones (pubic bones: ρ 0.29–0.51, auricular surfaces: ρ 0.33–0.50) but associated with large individual variability and overlap of curvature values between adjacent decades. The new procedure, requiring no expert judgment from the operator, achieved similar correlations that can be found in the classic methods.