|
Post by Elliot Kane on Jun 14, 2009 19:39:51 GMT
Sorry, Flix, but this is just not the case. Scientists did think that, but the number of 6' plus skeletons they kept finding in archaeological digs pretty much disproved it. The idea that people are getting taller hangs around rather stubbornly, but in actual fact the evidence is against it.
Unless they changed the evidence again when I wasn't looking! ;D But I'm pretty sure current thinking is that Medieval humans were about the same size as we are now.
|
|
|
Post by killerzzz on Jun 15, 2009 0:12:00 GMT
Napoléon! Hon Hon Hon! ;D Heck, I think people are getting shorter. I see kids these days and they're puny! And don't say I'm just noticing it in comparison to when I was their age or in comparison to kids I know and see grow up. Killerzzz
|
|
|
Post by Dark Phoenix Rising on Jun 16, 2009 14:24:46 GMT
I think that one of the issues is that while we can now see the dna code, we still don't know what it all means. It's a bit like taking all the windows programs out there, and looking at their machine code to try and work out how it works, without having any training in programming or any knowledge of how a processor works.
As for people getting taller and shorter, they worked out a while ago that height is determined by your maternal grandmother and how much nutrition she got, so as people got more or less to eat, so their grand children got more or less to eat.
|
|
|
Post by Terrordar on Jun 16, 2009 19:10:52 GMT
A Medieval human grew to be a few inches shorter than a modern human on average for nutrition reasons.
It wasn't this massive gap people were talking about, where somehow you know, in Medievial times man was only 4'9, or something stupid.
The Average European/North American is about 5'9. The Average Medieval Peasant would be like 5'6-5'7.
|
|
|
Post by Flix on Jun 16, 2009 19:51:16 GMT
That's what I was trying to say...we've gained a few inches thanks to better nutrition...it has nothing to do with evolution.
|
|
|
Post by kitty on Jun 17, 2009 12:31:39 GMT
I wish I was as tall as an average medieval peasant... (sorry, spam)
|
|
|
Post by Glance A'Lot on Jun 26, 2009 9:06:30 GMT
Well, a reasonably good measure of size is for example the knights' armors still extant - they usually were tailored to size (Note that these were generally better fed than their average peasant).
The Babenberg dynasty of Austria for example was renowned for its above average size (up to 190 cm) which towered over their contemporaries. Also, there has always been a North - South difference (in Western Europe). Indeed the average Germanic tribesman was taller than the average Italic Roman (Not by as much as some Roman historians claimed the 'barbarians' to be though).
I believe the differences are both genetic and nutritional. The fact that I'm (180 cm) taller than my father (175 cm, who actually was not taller than his or his junior brother), that my younger brothers are taller than me (183 and 186 cm, , and that my son is the size of my youngest brother is probably nutrition rather than genetics. (The same goes for the females in our family, but to a lesser extent in difference interestingly).
|
|
|
Post by Hildor on Jul 10, 2009 13:43:21 GMT
I'm short of a head taller than my father. And probably more than a thousand heads taller than my mother. Neither does the rest of my whole wide family get up to my height, except for my nephew's. So it should indeed have something to do with nutrition.
(I did drink litres and litres of milk when I was still growing. Maybe my bones were so well supplied with calcium that I kept on growing ;D)
|
|
|
Post by Galadriel on Jul 15, 2009 18:20:49 GMT
Or your parents kicked you in the butt a lot. I've heard that's also a reason when you're tall ;D
|
|
|
Post by Hildor on Jul 16, 2009 6:41:57 GMT
No I just started growing after my ego
|
|
|
Post by Alrik on Jul 16, 2009 15:23:42 GMT
An imho interesting article.
It had been in debate for quite a long time.
The question is now: WHERE did the birds now *actually* come from ?
@riihan : I'm quite surprised to find someone here who actually knows some bits about Ammonites ... Most people don't know what their suture lines actually are - well, I guess most people don't even know that they exist, after all ! Imho.
|
|
|
Post by LaFille on Apr 16, 2010 17:38:27 GMT
|
|