J. Rasmus Brandt, Erika Hagelberg, Gro Bjørnstad and Sven Ahrens (eds), Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times: Studies in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology

Authors

  • Willem M. Jongman

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32028/jga.v6i.1068

Keywords:

Asia Minor, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine

Abstract

In one of the most important works of historical scholarship of the last century, Peter Laslett gave a chilling sketch of The World We Have Lost. The book built on the recent advances in historical demography and family reconstitution to describe a preindustrial society where the Grim Reaper was omnipotent, with average life expectancies at birth of 20-35 years, high infant mortality, cruelly interrupted marriages, and many orphaned children. It was a fitting antidote to romantic views of a past where everything was somehow comfortably better. For the ancient world, such family reconstitutions were impossible for lack of suitable sources.

References

Laslett, P. 1965. The world we have lost. London: Methuen.

Hopkins, K. 1983. Death and Renewal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hopkins, K. 2018 [1966]. On the Probable Age Structure of the Roman Population, in C. Kelly (ed) Keith Hopkins, Sociological Studies in Roman History: 105-134. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jongman, W.M., J.P.A.M. Jacobs and G. Klein Goldewijk, 2019. ‘Health and Wealth in the Roman Empire. Economics & Human Biology 34, 138-150.

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Published

09/12/2021

How to Cite

Jongman, W. M. (2021). J. Rasmus Brandt, Erika Hagelberg, Gro Bjørnstad and Sven Ahrens (eds), Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times: Studies in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology. Journal of Greek Archaeology, 6, 441–443. https://doi.org/10.32028/jga.v6i.1068

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