Research Article

Brief and precarious lives: Infant mortality in contrasting sites from medieval and post-medieval England (AD 850–1859)

  1. Mary E. Lewis1,*,
  2. Rebecca Gowland2

Article first published online: 13 JUN 2007

DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20643

Issue

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Volume 134, Issue 1, pages 117–129, September 2007

Additional Information

How to Cite

Lewis, M. E. and Gowland, R. (2007), Brief and precarious lives: Infant mortality in contrasting sites from medieval and post-medieval England (AD 850–1859). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 134: 117–129. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.20643

Author Information

  1. 1

    School of Human and Environmental Studies, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AB, UK

  2. 2

    Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

*School of Human and Environmental Studies, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AB, UK

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 24 JUL 2007
  2. Article first published online: 13 JUN 2007
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 26 MAR 2007
  4. Manuscript Received: 29 JUN 2006

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Keywords:

  • post-neonatal deaths;
  • neonatal deaths;
  • medieval England;
  • Bays' theorem;
  • regression equations

Abstract

This study compares the infant mortality profiles of 128 infants from two urban and two rural cemetery sites in medieval England. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of urbanization and industrialization in terms of endogenous or exogenous causes of death. In order to undertake this analysis, two different methods of estimating gestational age from long bone lengths were used: a traditional regression method and a Bayesian method. The regression method tended to produce more marked peaks at 38 weeks, while the Bayesian method produced a broader range of ages and were more comparable with the expected “natural” mortality profiles.

At all the sites, neonatal mortality (28–40 weeks) outweighed post-neonatal mortality (41–48 weeks) with rural Raunds Furnells in Northamptonshire, showing the highest number of neonatal deaths and post-medieval Spitalfields, London, showing a greater proportion of deaths due to exogenous or environmental factors. Of the four sites under study, Wharram Percy in Yorkshire showed the most convincing “natural” infant mortality profile, suggesting the inclusion of all births at the site (i.e., stillbirths and unbaptised infants). Am J Phys Anthropol, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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