Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

The analysis of life expectancy and longevity is one approach to analysing diversity in the population of ancient Egypt. It is, however, important to understand the difficulties in such calculations and in the data from which such calculations are derived. Adult age is difficult to determine either from documentary or biological sources, so average age-at-death is particularly hard to determine. This discussion explores the issues surrounding demography, the potential sources for such data, and suggests ways that life expectancy in Egypt might be assessed and integrated with broader archaeological and Egyptological information.