INTRODUCTION

It is widely accepted that expectation of life in the human species has increased not only in the last hundred years for which documentation exists but also for the thousands of years before that. It is equally accepted that human specific longevity, that is the maximum potential lifespan, has not increased, merely the number of people that die before reaching seventy has been reduced. Yet when we look at the age structure of cemetery populations of the mediaeval, Romano-British or Neolithic periods there is little sign of this older age group.

It is easy to calculate a constant 3% per annum death rate for a static, non-replacing population, and this shows that as much as 16% of the skeletons in a cemetery could be over 60 years of age. In reality, mortality rates vary with age and always there is an increase in the number of old dying. I think that we have to find this group before we can attempt any palaeodemographic reconstruction from cemetery material. Human mortality patterns are unlikely to have changed so radically. It is more probable that the fault lies with our methods. In this paper I should like to examine some of our methods of ageing skeletal material and discuss some of the premises that lie behind their acceptance.