Radiocarbon test for demographic events in written and oral history.

ABSTRACT: We extend an established simulation-based method to test for significant short-duration (1-2 centuries) demographic events known from one documented historical and one oral historical context. Case study 1 extrapolates population data from the Western historical tradition using historically derived demographic data from the catastrophic European Black Death/bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis). We find a corresponding statistically significant drop in absolute population using an extended version of a previously published simulation method. Case study 2 uses this refined simulation method to test for a settlement gap identified in oral historical records of descendant Tsimshian First Nations communities from the Prince Rupert Harbour region of the Pacific Northwest region of British Col

SUBMITTER: Edinborough K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5703313 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature