ДИНАМИКА НА ДЕМОГРАФСКИТЕ ПРОЦЕСИ В СРЕДНОВЕКОВНА БЪЛГАРИЯ
DYNAMICS OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC PROCESSES IN MEDIEVAL BULGARIA

Summary/Abstract: The influence of various factors on the course of the demographic processes is sought by a comparative study of their changes both in time and in space. The object of research chosen are eleven mediaeval necropolises from different areas of Bulgaria, spanning the period between the 8th and the 17th century, with a total of 2027 skeletons. The palaeoanthropological material makes it possible to trace the demographic history from the founding of the Bulgarian state until the late Middle Ages. The methods of Acsadi and Nemeskeri are used to elaborate the so-called "lethality tables" which refiect both the general tendencies in the demographic processes and the differences between the two sexes with the variations in age. All investigated groups of the mediaeval Bulgarian population bear the features of "traditional" communities. The life expectancy of the newborn babies (e0) varied from 21,60 to 26,92 years. Similar values are also observed for the life expectancy of adults (e20) — between 21,72 and 27,97 years, i. e. the life expectancy (a20) during the Middle Ages was 48 years. The maximum difference between the two sexes reaches 8,7 years. The higher risk of lethality among women is reflected by the parameters qx and lx. Infant mortality varies between 31,61 and 56,12 per cent. The fluctuations in the demographic situation in the Bulgarian lands during the Middle Ages in the 15th-17th century are discussed taking into account the influence of the socio-economic factors and the prolonged stagnation in social development during Ottoman domination. The reported comparative data on Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Western Europe (totally) and Russia give grounds for considering the Middle Ages as a unified period in the demographic history, subordinated to laws and tendencies common to the development of Europe as a whole.

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