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Media vita in morte sumus . Different dynamics of the living and dead populatio ns at Bärenthal

Based on some of the findings from the early medieval graveyard of Bärenthal, Germany, the mathematical difference of the spheres of living and dead populations will be illustrated. The aim of the paper is to show that some caveats which were first described in the palaeodemographic and palaeoepidemiological literature are important to consider when archaeologists and osteologists interpret numerical data from cemetery sites. Only very few aspects are a simple reflection of the static dead population. The dynamics of living populations are more difficult to reconstruct. Three specific results based on a study of the Bärenthal site will be discussed in that light and can be linked with some of the other papers presented in the session. The number of definitely identified coffins and the position of the upper extremities tell the archaeologist something about the sphere of death. In contrast to that, disease rates, though drawn from the buried skeletons, have more to do with the lives and living conditions of the dynamic population that formed the cemetery than the accumulated and finally excavated dead population. I argue that such differences and dynamics of the living and dead populations can be illustrated with computer models. Modelling will help archaeologists and osteologists interpret mathematical data and analyse the intrinsic complexity in the cemetery context.