Pages: 163-174 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp235163174 

The authors present a paleoanthropological study of the necropolises from several 16 th—18 th century towns and villages in the western part of Russia. In this area and time period, the average life expectancy was very low. The lowest, 14.5 years, is observed in the population of the borderline fortress Blokhino-1 in Saransk County. The higher the infant mortality in the groups, the lower the average life expectancy. The infant mortality rate in different localities was different.
The peak of infant mortality falls on 0—5 age group in all studied groups from the western part of Russia of the 16 th—18 th centuries. The representativeness of this cohort often depends on the mortality rate of children in the first year of life. The high mortality rate of young children was associated with a low level of medical development, lack of antibiotics, and sometimes with historical situations.
Mortality in the first year of life, especially newborns, was the highest in the borderline fortress Blokhino-1 of Saransk County. The reason for such a dangerous demographic situation here was the historical purpose of the fortress and the task of the population to defend their homeland. Much less attention was paid to everything else. In general, the most prosperous demographic situation was in the village of Isupovo, Kostroma region, in the city of Kazan and on the territory of Nizhny Novgorod Posad near the Kremlin (necropolis on the Verkhnevolzhskaya embankment) in the 16th—18th centuries.

Keywords: child mortality, paleodemography, age cohort, mortality peak

Information about authors:

Svetlana Borutskaya (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Biological Sciences. M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Lomonosov Ave., 27-4, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0003-0753-151X
Sergey Vasilyev (Moscow, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Lenin Ave., 32-A, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0003-0128-6568