NEANDERTHAL MORTALITY PATTERNS

Consideration of the mortality distributions of 206 European and Near Eastern Neanderthals (40 associated skeletons and 166 isolated element s), compared to those of 11 Recent human ethnographic and palaeodemogr aphic samples and two non-human mammalian samples, indicate that there is a clear representational bias in the total sample, with too few in fants and older adults plus too many adolescents and prime-age adults. Manipulations of the Neanderthal data produce immature mortality dist ributions within the ranges of the Recent human samples, but they main tain the high prime-age adult and low older adult mortality. This high young adult mortality in the Neanderthal sample does not appear to be a product of differential preservation or recognition of fossil remai ns or the systematic underageing of older adults. However, it is likel y to be the product of a combination of demographic stress (associated with high levels of stress indicators), the effects of pooling across temporally and geographically diverse and fluctuating Neanderthal pop ulations, the need for full mobility among all individuals and hence a dearth of older individuals dying in shelters, and (possibly) differe ntial disposal of older individuals in shelters. The first three facto rs support the interpretations of high levels of adaptive stress previ ously suggested by palaeopathological analyses of their remains.