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23 - Shaping Age-at-Death Distributions by Applying Tooth Cementum Analysis to the Early Medieval Graveyard of Lauchheim (Germany)

from Part III - Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2022

By
Ursula Wittwer-Backofen  and
Felix Engel
Edited by
Stephan Naji ,
William Rendu  and
Lionel Gourichon
Stephan Naji
Affiliation:
New York University
William Rendu
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux (CNRS)
Lionel Gourichon
Affiliation:
Université de Nice, Sophia Antipolis
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Summary

The paleodemography analysis of the Early medieval Lauchheim cemetery (Germany) was conducted to reconstruct the age-at-death distribution of 789 adults with preserved teeth using the Tooth Cementum Annulation (TCA) method, and the analysis of individual morphological age markers (MAE) for those without teeth. Aggregating TCA and MAE results revealed specific mortality peaks for males in their early fifties. After a mortality peak in their early forties, females surviving their fertile age group seemed to benefit from a resilience pattern that allows them to survive longer than their male counterparts. The mean life expectancy for females was below male life expectancy, whereas the oldest age group above 70 years of age included females only. In conclusion, TCA shows a more diverse age-at-death distribution without MAE inherent effects. Thus, it could be argued that TCA allows us to complement osteological age estimations and shape age at death distributions to understand demographic processes in premodern societies better.

Keywords

CementumTCAage-at-deathpaleodemographyLauchheimMAEGermanyMiddle Ages
Type
Chapter
Information
Dental Cementum in Anthropology , pp. 364 - 378
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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