Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris (Dec 2002)
Les processus de conservation différentielle du squelette des individus immatures
Abstract
Bone remains in osteological collections are not a reflection of a living population, only a sample of the original population. Differential states of preservation related to the individuals’ age can result in under-representation of certain categories (especially very young children). Such under-representation produces a bias in the reconstruction of past populations.The present anthropological study was carried out on 341 skeletons from three modern osteoarchaeological collections. The state of preservation of these collections has been evaluated by the “Anatomical Preservation Index” (API).The anatomical study took into account the effect of differential preservation on the analysis of age-dependent palaeodemographic parameters. The individual study demonstrates strong disparities between the different age categories, the API of the sub-adult always being lower than that of the individual adults. Moreover, the average API of sub-adult individuals appears to be in relation to age.Although the direct relation between the general state of preservation and the age of sub-adults is clear, it does not appear to have much influence on the palaeodemographic results of the three samples analysed.
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