A critical review of anthropological studies on skeletons from European plague pits of different epochs.

ABSTRACT: In historical times, plague epidemics intermittently ravaged Europe for more than 1,400 years, and still represent a threat in many countries all over the world. A debate is ongoing about the past plague, if it killed randomly in a population or discriminated among persons on the basis of their biological features. To address questions of plague lethality, we reviewed a large number of anthropological studies published in the last twenty years on victims of the past pestilences in Europe. In particular, we focused on data concerning demography (age at death and sex determination), and health status (skeletal biomarkers). We applied to these data a model system based on Multiple Linear Regression, which aimed to discern among possible predictors of sex-selective plague lethality in entire p

SUBMITTER: Bramanti B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6281611 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature