This is a script for converting skeletal remains w/ age estimates into an extrapolated model life table. The results were used for an agent-based simulation of the Yayoi period using Pax Sapientica, presented at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Anthropological Society of Japan.
It primarily uses two packages: mortAAR and DemoTools.
The current configuration makes life tables for each sex and separates skeletal remains by group (i.e. population). It allows for the input of infant & child mortality parameters, which override skeletal data. Current child mortality settings are based on Volk & Atkinson (2013).
(https://github.com/AsPJT/PAX_SAPIENTICA)
Mueller-Scheessel, N., Hinz, M., Schmid, C., Rinne, C., Knitter, D., Hamer, W., ... & Grunert, N. (2018). mortAAR: Analysis of Archaeological Mortality Data. URL: https://github.com/ISAAKiel/mortAAR
Riffe T, Aburto JM, Alexander M,Fennell S, Kashnitsky I, Pascariu M and Gerland P. (2019). DemoTools: An R package of tools for aggregate demographic analysis. URL: https://github.com/timriffe/DemoTools/
Volk, A. A., & Atkinson, J. A. (2013). Infant and child death in the human environment of evolutionary adaptation. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(3), 182–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.11.007
The current configuration makes life tables from Jomon and Yayoi period skeletal remains. The data source is Kyushu University's skeletal remains database (http://db.museum.kyushu-u.ac.jp/anthropology/)
Input data in csv format (input.csv), and adjust the script to suit your needs. I recommend changing the name of the output file to represent your CMR assumptions (e.g. life-table-yayoi-CMR45).
Below are the assumptions that were made for age categories in the data set. All data modification was done out of script
| 年齢 | age1 | age2 | name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 乳児 | 0 | 1 | infant |
| 幼児 | 0 | 5 | toddler |
| 小児 | 5 | 10 | child |
| 若年 | 10 | 20 | adolescent |
| 成年 | 20 | 40 | young_adult |
| 熟年 | 40 | 60 | middle_adult |
| 老年 | 60 | 80 | old_adult |
| 未成人 | 5 | 20 | juvenile |
| 成人 | 20 | 60 | adult |
| ID | site | group | sex | from | to | from_class | to_class |
|---|
- ID = ID of skeletal remains
- Site = Site where the remains are from
- group = population (culture)*
- sex = m (male), f (female), or x (unknown)*
- from = age estimate lower bound*
- to = age estimate, upper bound*
- from_class = from age class (e.g. at a minimum, an infant)
- to_class = to age class (e.g. at a maximum, a child)
(* = required)