Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - The Neolithic Subadult Skeletons from Khirokitia (Cyprus): Taphonomy and Infant Mortality
AU  - Le Mort F
Y1  - 2000
VL  - 38
IS  - 1
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 63
EP  - 70
KW  - Aceramic Neolithic
KW  - Cyprus
KW  - Khirokitia
KW  - Taphonomy
KW  - Demography
KW  - Subadults
KW  - Infant mortality
KW  - Perinatal mortality
N2  - 
N2  - The Neolithic site of Khirokitia in Cyprus, which dates back to the VIIth millennium B.C. (calibrated) yielded a large human bone sample comprising 252 individuals. The skeletal remains include a high proportion of infants under one year of age, most of them deceased perinatally, as well as a low proportion of children more than one year old. The subadults/adults ratio appears to be consistent with an ancient population. The unusual subadults age distribution reflects, in all likelihood, demographic anomalies that can be totally explained neither by an uneven archaeological sampling, nor by taphonomic process nor by cultural practices such as burial customs or infanticide. A possible interpretation for the high perinatal mortality, involving genetic anaemia, is suggested.
ER  -