Archaeological Demography

Abstract

Archaeological demography investigates the structure and dynamics of past human populations using evidence from traces of human activities and remnants of material culture in the archaeological record. Research in this field is interdisciplinary, incorporating findings from anthropology, paleogenetics, and human ecology but with a remit that extends beyond the primarily biological focus of paleodemography. Important questions addressed by archaeological demography include the establishment of methods for inferring past population structure, the timing of the emergence of modern human demographic systems, the relative importance of attritional and catastrophic patterns of mortality, and the search for adaptive explanations for demographic transitions, colonization events, and population extinctions. Archaeological evidence, including the extent of settlements and site catchment areas as well as measures of the exploitation, consumption, and discard of materials and artifacts, have traditionally been used as proxies for estimating past population size and density. In recent years this evidence has been supplemented by increasingly large data sets compiled from radiocarbon dating programs. These data sets have been used to investigate demographic waves of advance during continental-scale periods of colonization and cultural change and to detect episodes of population decline, extinction, and hiatuses in settlement history. By considering studies of human genetic diversity that indicate temporary but drastic reductions in effective population size, I hypothesize that catastrophic mortality may have had an important role in long-term population processes and may have limited long-term rates of growth, particularly in prehistoric populations. This open access article is available in Human Biology: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol81/iss2/9 Archaeological DemographyAndrew Chamberlain 1 Abstract Archaeological demography investigates the structure and dynamics of past human populations using evidence from traces of human activities and remnants of material culture in the archaeological record. Research in this fi eld is interdisciplinary, incorporating fi ndings from anthropology, paleogenetics, and human ecology but with a remit that extends beyond the primarily biological focus of paleodemography. Important questions addressed by archaeological demography include the establishment of methods for inferring past population structure, the timing of the emergence of modern human demographic systems, the relative importance of attritional and catastrophic patterns of mortality, and the search for adaptive explanations for demographic transitions, colonization events, and population extinctions. Archaeological evidence, including the extent of settlements and site catchment areas as well as measures of the exploitation, consumption, and discard of materials and artifacts, have traditionally been used as proxies for estimating past population size and density. In recent years this evidence has been suppleme...

Regional Demographic Dynamics in the Neolithic Transition in Iberia: Results from Summed Calibrated Date Analysis

“…Following a proposal for attaining the full informative potential of radiocarbon dating and its archaeological correlates (Barceló 2008;Barceló et al 2014, pp. 489-491), these radiometric measurements may be related to depositional events, which were channeled by sedimentary and taphonomic filters (Surovell et al 2009), and ultimately reflect archaeological events that may be deployed as a proxy for human activity and, therefore, demography (Chamberlain 2009;Riede 2009;Armit et al 2012;Hinz et al 2012b;Shennan et al 2013). Most of these radiocarbon dates have been fully published accompanied by their relevant contextual details (site type, depositional context, material, etc.)…”

Infant feeding practice in medieval Japan: Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human skeletons from Yuigahama‐minami

“…Among 260 skeletons with a preserved pelvis, 17.3% of individuals were aged between 0 and 4 years, and the sex ratio was 106 males to 100 females (Nagaoka et al, 2006). They estimated demographic parameters based on juvenility index, in which the numbers of deaths of older subadults are expressed as a ratio of their deaths to the number of adult deaths in the population (Bocquet-Appel and Masset, 1996;Chamberlain, 2009). This was designed to avoid the biasing effects caused by differential mortuary practices and post depositional preservation potential of younger subadult skeletons (Lewis, 2007).…”

Quantifying Land Use in Past Societies from Cultural Practice and Archaeological Data

“…Estimates of population can be calculated based on relative, period specific, population and settlement densities derived from the archaeological record. Such data may include settlement evidence from archaeological field survey [55,63], excavations of settlements and their residential buildings [64], cemetery assemblages [78], and, more recently, summed radiocarbon dates [79,80]. Our quantifications can be used to assess the reliability of such estimates and to explore different scenarios and population alternatives.…”