Detecting plague: palaeodemographic characterisation of a catastrophic death assemblage

Gowland, R.; Chamberlain, A.T.

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00113766

Detecting plague: palaeodemographic characterisation of a catastrophic death assemblage

Gowland, R.; Chamberlain, A.T.

Authors

Professor Rebecca Gowland rebecca.gowland@durham.ac.uk
Professor

A.T. Chamberlain

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.
Publisher URL	http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9508155&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0003598X00113766