Brief and precarious lives: Infant mortality in contrasting sites from medieval and post-medieval England (AD 850-1859)

Lewis, M. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6224-0278 and Gowland, R. (2007) Brief and precarious lives: Infant mortality in contrasting sites from medieval and post-medieval England (AD 850-1859). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 134 (1). pp. 117-129. ISSN 0002-9483 doi: 10.1002/ajpa.20643

Abstract/Summary

This study compares the infant mortality profiles of 128 infants from two urban and two rural cemetery sites in medieval England. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of urbanization and industrialization in terms of endogenous or exogenous causes of death. In order to undertake this analysis, two different methods of estimating gestational age from long bone lengths were used: a traditional regression method and a Bayesian method. The regression method tended to produce more marked peaks at 38 weeks, while the Bayesian method produced a broader range of ages and were more comparable with the expected "natural" mortality profiles. At all the sites, neonatal mortality (28-40 weeks) outweighed post-neonatal mortality (41-48 weeks) with rural Raunds Furnells in Northamptonshire, showing the highest number of neonatal deaths and post-medieval Spitalfields, London, showing a greater proportion of deaths due to exogenous or environmental factors. Of the four sites under study, Wharram Percy in Yorkshire showed the most convincing "natural" infant mortality profile, suggesting the inclusion of all births (i.e., stillbirths and unbaptised infants).

Additional Information
Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/3750
Item Type	Article
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Archaeology Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Scientific Archaeology
Uncontrolled Keywords	post-neonatal deaths neonatal deaths medieval England Bays' theorem regression equations PERINATAL SKELETAL MATERIAL FETAL LIMB GROWTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES BAYESIAN-APPROACH ROMAN-BRITAIN ULTRASONIC EVALUATION AGE ESTIMATION DEATH URBAN RECONSIDERATION
Additional Information
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item