Demographic Trends and Biological Status of Historic Populations From Central Poland: The Ostro ´ w Lednicki Microregion Alicja Budnik,* Graz ˙ yna Liczbin ´ ska, and Izabela Gumna Department of Anthropology, Adam Mickiewicz University, 61-701 Poznan ´ , Poland KEY WORDS life tables; opportunity for natural selection; exogamy; coefficients of kinship ABSTRACT The microregion of Ostro ´w Lednicki in the province of Wielkopolska was the center of the forma- tion of the Polish State in Early Middle Ages. The analysis of skeletal remains and parish records from the region documented the biological status of inhabitants and its changes over a millennium. The study material comprised 424 human skeletons from an Early Medieval burial ground on Lake Lednica, records of 2,704 deaths from the registers of the Roman Catholic parish of Dziekanowice, made between 1818 –1903, data on the deaths of 929,192 inhabitants of rural areas all over the province Wielkopol- ska obtained from Prussian statistical materials for the years 1865–1900, and comparative data from the litera- ture. Assuming both a stationary population model and a stable population model with nonzero natural increase, parameters of life tables and measures of opportunity for natural selection (Crow’s index I m , potential gross repro- ductive rate R pot , and the biological state index I bs ) were calculated for the Early Middle Ages and for the two periods of the 19th century which were characterized by different laws of land ownership and thus different rural economies. In the first period, peasants were tenants, whereas in the second, they were given freehold of the land they cultivated. Causes of death were also analyzed. A distinct increase in longevity from the early Middle Ages to the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century was found. This was related to a higher level of demographic development in the parish of Dziekanowice during the 19th century, which was achieved earlier than in other areas of Poland. This was confirmed by genetic measures: coefficients of exogamy and coefficients of kin- ship. The reasons were related to the historical promi- nence of this region and to its proximity to the first two capitals of the Polish state, Gniezno and Poznan ´. Am J Phys Anthropol 125:369 –381, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. In the vicinity of Poznan ´ and Gniezno, the two first capitals of the Medieval Polish state, within the ancient territory of the Polanie tribe (Polonians), there lies the glacial channel of Lake Lednica (Fig. 1). The landscapes of the areas around the lake are typical for the Wielkopolska region, with its numer- ous moraine hills, extensive flat farmlands, and scrub forests. Richness of the local natural resources was conducive to human activity in the past. The second half of the 10th century (the early Middle Ages in Poland) brought a dramatic increase in settlement in the area surrounding the lake. At that time, on the lake’s largest island (called Ostro ´w Lednicki), Prince Mieszko I, the first historical ruler of the Polish state, built one of the country’s leading cities of great strategic, residential, and religious importance (Go ´recki, 1991; Kurnatowska, 1987; Kurnatowska and Kurnatowski, 1991). Ruins of the city are protected as a national monument because it was the site of the official acceptance of the Polish state into the Christendom in 966. The construction of the city on Ostro ´w Lednicki island initiated the erection of numerous settlements around the lake. Archaeologists observed a distinct concentration of archaeological finds in the surroundings of the present-day villages of this microregion. The major- ity of these villages have documented medieval ori- gins (Kurnatowska and Kurnatowski, 1991; Su- limierski, 2002). Among them are the villages of the Roman Catholic parish of Dziekanowice (Fig. 1). The parish has well-kept public registers covering the years 1818 –1903. In the proximity of the village of Dziekanowice, on the shore of Lake Lednica, there is the Early Medieval burial ground Dziekanowice 22 (Fig. 1). The purpose of this work is: 1) to characterize biological dynamics in rural populations of the Os- tro ´ w Lednicki microregion in the Early Middle Ages, in the 19th century, and at the beginning of the 20th century; and 2) to determine whether the fact that in the Early Middle Ages Ostro ´w Lednicki was the *Correspondence to: Alicja Budnik, Department of Anthropology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznan ´ , Poland. E-mail:ambpp@main.amu.edu.pl Received 24 April 2001; accepted 13 December 2002. DOI 10.1002/ajpa.10272 Published online 26 July 2004 in Wiley InterScience (www. interscience.wiley.com). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 125:369 –381 (2004) © 2004 WILEY-LISS, INC.