Detecting plague: palaeodemographic characterisation of a catastrophic death assemblage

Gowland, R.; Chamberlain, A.T.

Abstract

The archaeological definition of a plague should be possible from skeletal populations, because the age profile of a population afflicted by a catastrophe will be different to that of a community exposed to a more normal mortality. The authors show how this can be done using a Bayesian statistical analysis.

Citation

Gowland, R., & Chamberlain, A. (2005). Detecting plague: palaeodemographic characterisation of a catastrophic death assemblage. Antiquity, 79(303), 146-157. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00113766

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2005
• Deposit Date: Dec 1, 2008
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 17, 2011
• Journal: Antiquity
• Print ISSN: 0003-598X
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-1744
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 79
• Issue: 303
• Pages: 146-157
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00113766
• Keywords: Black Death, Bayesian Statistics, Skeletal ageing.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1553420
• Publisher URL: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9508155&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0003598X00113766