Integrating Bioarchaeology and Palaeodemography

Summary The late 1960s and the 1970s saw palaeodemography emerge as a new field, with preliminary methods, applications and issues developed and noted by a number of archaeologists, biological anthropologists, and demographers. Palaeodemography is the study of the dynamics of past populations, typically those that lack historical census data. This chapter explores how demographic theory and methods have been integrated into palaeodemography within the context of archaeology. It discusses the manner in which theory has influenced palaeodemography, including the amalgamation of theoretical concepts into palaeodemographic methods and the interpretive framework in which analyses are contextualized. The chapter discusses at length the development of methods in palaeodemography and how these have evolved over time and responded to criticisms from within and outside the field. Palaeodemographic methods were originally derived from demographic approaches but have evolved to meet the requirements and challenges of working with bioarchaeological data.