The model life tables should be compared to various data to illustrate their applicability. The comparative data should be independent of the populations used in the construction of the tables so that they can serve as controls for the models.

Russell (1958) carried out a comprehensive study of human mortality in late ancient and medieval times. The life table material in his work derives from ungraduated and unsmoothed raw data in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum which lists tombstone inscriptions from ancient Roman areas. These data, together with some medieval British life expectancies also from Russell, are summarized in Tables 13 through 15. The mortality and life expectancy values closely approximate in range and pattern the values in our model life table series.