The relationship between mortality pattern and the state of health of the Early medieval population of Žatec

The project aim at the study of paleodemography and paleopathology of the Žatec polulation living in 11th-12th century AD. The datation of two excavated cemeteries is obtained according to the grave contents, which provides also the exceptional materialfor the internal - cemetery - datation, so that we are able to differentiate some chronological groups. Relatively high number of child burials rise the important question of infant and juvenile mortality encountered in this rural population. Relativelygood state of the skeletal preservation in also promising for the study of the correlation of different ageing criteria of the adults to contribute to the important question of female versus male mortality pattern in the prehistory. In relationship withthe results obtained from the mortality studies, we would like to examine the pathological conditions, which can provide the additional information. We would like to focus our interest on the teeth as well as on the others indikators of stress.