  Integrated spectra have been obtained of 31 star clusters in the Magellanic
Clouds (MC) and of 4 Galactic globular clusters. The spectra cover the
wavelength range 3500 -- 4700 Angstroms at a resolution of 3.2 Angstroms FWHM.
The MC clusters primarily cover the age range <10^8 -- 3 Gyr, and hence are
well-suited to an empirical study of aging post-starburst stellar populations.
An age-dating method is presented that relies on two spectral absorption
feature indices, H\delta/Fe I 4045 and Ca II, as well as an index measuring the
strength of the Balmer discontinuity. We compare the behavior of the spectral
indices in the observed integrated spectra of the MC clusters to that of
indices generated from theoretical evolutionary synthesis models of varying age
and metal-abundance. The synthesis models are based on those of Worthey (1994,
ApJS, 95, 107), when coupled with the combination of an empirical library of
stellar spectra (Jones 1999, PhD thesis, University of North Carolina) for the
cooler stars and synthetic spectra, generated from Kurucz model atmospheres,
for the hotters stars. Overall, we find good agreement between the ages of the
MC clusters derived from our integrated spectra (and the evolutionary synthesis
modelling of the spectral indices) and ages derived from analyses of the
cluster color-magnitude diagrams, as found in the literature. Hence the
principal conclusion of this study is that ages of young stellar populations
can be reliably measured from modelling of their integrated spectra.
