Comparing the Determined Age at Death between Men and Women Based on the Human Bones Excavated from Shahr-e Sokhta1 Archaeological Site: A Survival Approach Using Life-Table and Kaplan-Meier Methods

Studying the human remains and analyzing demographic problems, sex ratios, and mortality rates in Shahr-e Sokhta (The Burnt City in Persian) can prove highly valuable in identifying the ancient peoples of the region, thus shedding light on a significant transitional period between the prehistoric and the historic eras. In this study, a gender-based analysis was conducted on the anthropometric data extracted from the existing reports on Shahr-e Sokhta III via two statistical methods, namely, the life table method and the Kaplan-Meier method. Of the 370 studied skeletons, 218 belonged to women and 152 to men. Two statistical survival analysis methods were used to examine the skeletal remains of men and women over the age of 12. The results (P-value = 0.143) of the Kaplan- Meier method (using the log-rank test) did not reveal a statically significant difference between age at death distributions obtained for men and women. However, the life table method (via the Wilcoxon signed-rank test) indicated a statically significant difference between men and women in terms of age at death distributions (P-value = 0.003). The results of the life table method obtained in this study are in agreement with those indicated in the reports on Shahr-e Sokhta III. Therefore, we concluded that the contradiction in the results obtained through the Kaplan-Meier and the life table methods might be due to the different weightings attributed in the log-rank test and the Wilcoxon test. For this reason, we propose that similar studies be conducted in other ancient sites where cemeteries with skeletal remains have been unearthed.