Lewis Mary E, Gowland Rebecca
School of Human and Environmental Studies, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, UK.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2007 Sep;134(1):117-29. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.20643.
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).
本研究比较了中世纪英格兰两个城市和两个农村墓地遗址中128名婴儿的死亡率情况。本文旨在评估城市化和工业化对内生性或外源性死亡原因的影响。为了进行这一分析，采用了两种根据长骨长度估算胎龄的不同方法：传统回归法和贝叶斯法。回归法往往在38周时产生更明显的峰值，而贝叶斯法得出的年龄范围更广，且与预期的“自然”死亡率情况更具可比性。在所有遗址中，新生儿死亡率（28 - 40周）高于新生儿后期死亡率（41 - 48周），北安普敦郡的农村朗兹弗内尔斯出现的新生儿死亡数量最多，而伦敦中世纪后的斯皮塔菲尔德因外源性或环境因素导致的死亡比例更高。在所研究的四个遗址中，约克郡的沃勒姆珀西呈现出最令人信服的“自然”婴儿死亡率情况，这表明该遗址纳入了所有出生情况（即死产和未受洗婴儿）。
