Determinants of infant mortality and representation in bioarchaeological samples : a review

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This article is dedicated to the memory of Alistair D. E. Muir (1972 - 2020). This research was partly funded by a British Academy grant GP2\190224. The authors thank the reviewers for their feedback which has improved this manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Estimating Fertility using Adults : A Method for Under-enumerated Pre-adult Skeletal Samples

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their suggestions which contributed to the improvement of this article. This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Article Funding Open access publishing facilitated by Australian National University, as part of the Wiley - Australian National University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Temporal trends in the colonisation of the Pacific : Palaeodemographic insights

Open Access via the Springer Compact Agreement. This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, Australian Research Council; Grant number: FT 120100299; and Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), Durham University and The COFUND ‘Durham International Fellowships for Research and Enterprise’ scheme. We also thank Les O’Neill, Archaeology Programme, University of Otago, for creating Figure 1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Comparisons of age-at-death distributions among extinct hominins and extant nonhuman primates indicate normal mortality

Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their constructive and helpful feedback, which has undoubtedly improved this manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Ageing the elderly: A new approach to the estimation of the age-at-death distribution from skeletal remains

This study reports on the use of a proportional measure to estimate the age‐at‐death distribution of an assemblage and, when combined with a seriation method, additionally estimate the age‐at‐death of individuals. Traditional methods of estimating age‐at‐death suffer from a number of issues, including decreasing accuracy with increasing age, age mimicry of the reference population, and difficulty balancing accuracy with precision. A new method is proposed for estimating the age‐at‐death distribution of middle and older adults. As the age‐at‐death distribution is significantly impacted by the fertility rate, it was hypothesised that the D0‐14/D ratio (the number of individuals who died aged 0-14 years divided by the total population; an indicator of fertility) may be able to estimate the proportion of individuals that might be expected to die in each five‐year age group over 35 years. The method permits the estimation of individual age when used in conjunction with seriation methods and the age‐at‐death distribution of a population. The method is tested on two samples of known age, the Spitalfields crypt and St Thomas' Church cemetery collections and found to provide greater accuracy over previously applied methods

Identity and community structure in Neolithic Man Bac, Northern Vietnam

FUNDING This research was supported by JSPS fund 16H02527 and Australian Research Council grant DP0774079. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have been involved in the excavation and post-excavation work associated with Man Bac over the years. Here we wish to pay special thanks to Nguyen Kim Dung (then of the Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi) who co-directed the excavations in 2004/5 and 2007. The following were involved in either one or several ways between 2004/5 and 2007 (facilitation of land access, excavation, post-excavation analysis, and ublication): Nguyen Hann Khang and Nguyen Cao Tan (Ninh Binh Provincial Museum, Vietnam), the landowner of Man Bac Nguyen Van Sai, the Chung Village community, Peter Bellwood and Lorna Tilley (Australian National University), Nguyen Giang Hai (former Director, Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi), Nguyen Kim Thuy, Nguyen An Tuan, Vu The Long, Tran Thi Thuy Ha, Bui Thu Phuong, Ha Manh Thang, Nguyen Ngoc Quy, Vo Thanh Huong, Nguyen Chi Tan, Nguyen Thi Mai Huong (Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi), Mariko Yamagata (Okayama Science University, Japan), Ken-ichi Shidoda (National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan), Yukio Dodo (formerly of Tohoku University, Japan), Takeji Toizumi (Meiji University, Japan), Junmei Sawada (Nigata University of Health and Welfare, Japan), Mark Lipson (Harvard Medical School, USA), Anna Willis (James Cook University, Australia). Many thanks to Jeff Oliver for reading and commenting on an earlier draft.Peer reviewedPostprin

Detection of temporospatially localized growth in ancient Southeast Asia using human skeletal remains

Measures of population growth can provide significant insights into the health, adaptivity and resilience of ancient communities, particularly the way in which human populations respond to major changes, such as the transition to agriculture. To date, paleodemographic tools have facilitated the evaluation of long term, regional population growth, while identification of intraregional variability and short-term growth has been more challenging. This study reports on the application of a new method for estimating the rate of natural population increase (RNPI) from skeletal remains. We have applied the method to ancient Southeast Asian samples and, based on the LOESS fitting procedure, our preliminary results indicate a trend of temporal homogeneity and spatial heterogeneity. This trend is validated against the existing archaeological narrative for the region and, we argue, may indicate intraregional variability in population responses to major technological, economic and sociocultural events, consistent with the variable response observed at the regional level. Due to the critical importance of temporospatial specificity to a vast array of paleodemographic research questions, we have evaluated the precision, assumptions and limitations of this method in the context of other existing paleodemographic methods. Our RNPI measure, in isolation or in combination with existing methods, provides a promising tool that can be used to develop a deeper and more localized understanding of the conditions impacting on population dynamics and, conversely, community responses to change.This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship and Australian Research Council Grant: FT120100299

Paleoepidemiology of cribra orbitalia : Insights from early seventh millennium BP Con Co Ngua, Vietnam

Funding Information: Grant sponsors: Australian Research Council DP110101097, FT120100299. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. American Journal of Biological Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.Peer reviewedPublisher PD