Monograph title Contributors 1. Preface J.W. Vaupel 2. In Search of the First Centenarians B. Jeune 3. The Evolution of Human Longevity from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages: An Analysis Based on Skeletal Data J.L. Boldsen and R.R. Paine 4. Patterns of Advanced Age Mortality in the Medieval Village Tirup J.L. Boldsen 5. Alleged Danish Centenarians before 1800 T. Kjærgaard 6. Danish Centenarians after 1800 A. Skytthe and B. Jeune 7. Record Longevity in Swedish Cohorts Born since 1700 H. Lundström 8. The Oldest Old in Pre-Industrial Britain: Centenarians before 1800 - Fact or Fiction? J. Hynes 9. Record Longevity in Chinese History - Evidence from the Wang Genealogy Z. Zhao 10. The Emergence and Proliferation of Centenarians J.W. Vaupel and B. Jeune 11. A Note on Some Historical Data on Old Age Mortality A.R. Thatcher 12. The Earliest Centenarians: A Statistical Analysis J.R. Wilmoth