Random historical wifflings...

[annwfyn]

I just found this article on the Mary Rose.

It's got a load of interesting things in it about Tudor life. The average height of the soldiers on the Mary Rose was 5'7" tall - 1" taller than the average WW1 Tommy, and 25% of them had no tooth decay. Pre-urbanisation it appears most people were actually taller and healthier. The industrial revolution actually made people shorter and weaker.

I'm adding this together with other bits and pieces I've read about medieval history - Terry Jones wrote a lovely book called 'Medieval Lives' which rather reiterated this point. According to that, your average medieval peasant actually had a healthier and more varied diet than someone of equivalent social standing would have done at the turn of the century.

Progress is a funny thing...

Comments

[adze.livejournal.com]

Bizarrely, I was just reading that.

And I can easily believe that people in medieval times had a better diet than I do - the amount of easily available junk food in the world means that I'm pretty much screwed there!

[anonymous-james.livejournal.com]

I remember the Mary Rose being lifted. Showing my age perhaps, but it seemed like a really exciting thing back then - a real glimpse into the past. I think I hoped that I'd be able to see it for real one day, but (not having read the article) that probably won't be possible for a while yet.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

During the reign of Napoleon, the average height of the Frenchman dropped by four inches due to the attrition rate in tall, healthy young men in his armies.