Paleodemography and Historical Demography in the Context of an Epidemic: Plague in Provence in the Eighteenth Century

SiGNOLi Michel, Séguy Isabelle, Biraben Jean-Noël, Dutour Olivier.- Paleodemography and Historical Demography in the Context of an Epidemic: Plague in Provence in the Eighteenth Century This article sheds an entirely new light on the study of the plague thanks to contributions from disciplines that are only seldom brought together around the same research topic: anthropology, archaeology, historical demography, history, microbiology and paleodemography. It confronts two types of documents: biological archives (the skeletons) and historical archives, the comparative study of which has provided new and original information. Distribution of the casualties by sex, age and intensity of the epidemic phase has been established and compared with previous results. The age distribution of deaths from the plague differs from "natural" mortality profiles and from deaths resulting from other epidemics or other demographic crises. The plague epidemic may be characterized as "non selective", given that the bio- or paleodemographic sample may be considered as a reflection of the structure of the living population, something which is rarely observed. The results that we present concern a recent period for which the historical archives are of exceptional richness and provide a great deal of information on modern plague epidemics. The results from anthropological fieldwork and microbiology enable us to envisage similar research on more ancient epidemics, even in the absence of written documents.Signoli Michel, Séguy Isabelle, Biraben Jean-Noël, Dutour Olivier.- Paleodemografia y demografie histórica en un contexte de epidemia: la peste en Provenza en el siglo XVIII Este articulo ofrece una perspectiva totalmente nueva para el estudio de la peste gracias al aporte de disciplinas que raramente se combinan entorno a un único terna de investigación: la antropología, la arqueología, la demografía histórica, la historia, la microbiologia y la paleodemografia. Se utihzan dos tipos de documentos: los archivos biológicos (los esqueletos) y los archivos históncos. Su comparación aporta informaciones originales e inéditas. El articulo muestra la distnbución de las victimas por sexo , edad y segun la intensidad de la fase epidémica y la compara con resultados antenores. La distribución por edad de defunciones por peste difiere de los perfiles de mortalidad "natural" y de los que resultan de otras epidemias о de otras crisis demográficas. La epidemia de la peste se puede calificar como "no selectiva", pudiéndose considerar la muestra bio- o paleo-demográfica como un reflejo de la estructura de la población viviente. Tal perfil se observa con роса frecuencia. Los resultados que presentamos conciernen un periodo reciente, para el que los archivos históricos son de una riqueza excepcional y nos permiten obtener un muy buen conoci- miento de las epidemias de peste modernas. Los resultados obtenidos en antropología de terreno y en microbiologia permiten prever investigaciones similares sobre epidemias más an- tiguas, incluso en ausencia de documentos escntos.Signoli M., Séguy Isabelle, Biraben J.-N., Dutour O. Paleodemography and Historical Demography in the Context of an Epidemic: Plague in Provence in the Eighteenth Century. In: Population (English edition), 57ᵉ année, n°6, 2002. pp. 829-854

La diffusion spatio-temporelle d'une épidémie de peste en Basse-Provence au XVIIIe s.

International audienceReliable historical data, sets of ancient maps, previous and precise research allow us to follow and analyze the spread of France’s last plague (that of Marseille, in 1720-1722) by means of GIS. The project’s methodological aspects, which are in progress, are presented here and some preliminary results are put forward.Des documents historiques abondants et fiables, un fonds cartographique ancien relativement important, des travaux antérieurs précis, offrent l’opportunité de retracer et d’analyser la propagation de la dernière grande peste ayant sévi en France (celle de Marseille, 1720-1722) par le biais d’un SIG. Ce projet, en cours de réalisation, est ici présenté dans ses aspects méthodologiques ; quelques résultats préliminaires sont proposés

Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800-2001

Historians and demographers have gone to considerable trouble to reconstruct life expectancy in the past in individual countries. This overview collects information from a large body of that work and links estimates for historical populations to those provided by the United Nations, the World Bank, and other sources for 1950-2001. The result is a picture of regional and global life expectancy at birth for selected years from 1800 to 2001. The bibliography of more than 700 sources is published separately on the web. Copyright 2005 The Population Council, Inc..