| Abstract: |
Composite life tables are constructed from mortality data recorded on 139 inhumation burials from a prehistoric archaeological site, Non Nok Tha (NNT) in northeastern Thailand. The representativeness of the site's vital statistics, the methods used to determine the age and sex from skeletal remains, the possible sources of sampling error, and the method of life table construction used are discussed. Combining mortality data from all levels of the site shows the mean age-at-death for the entire sample to be 24.7 years, with very few individuals surviving to old age. The greatest number of deaths occur in the young and middle-aged adult intervals. In the subadult component, mortality is highest in young children (2 to 6 years of age). Life tables constructed from burials which were divided into an earlier and later group reveal a lower mean age-at-death, higher infant and early child mortality, and overall shorter life expectancy for the earlier inhabitants of this site. This changing demographic pattern of reduced mortality and higher life expectancy for the more recent inhabitants of the site generally coincides with advances in cultural development experienced at the site as interpreted from the archaeological record. Some limited comparisons are made between the site's demographic trends and the general state of health of the site's inhabitants as determined from a previous study of diseased bones found among these remains. Comparisons of the NNT life table with similar data drawn from one other prehistoric Thai site, Ban Kao, the prehistoric Jomon population from Japan, and several prehistoric and historic European populations are also made.
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