Posted on 09/01/2004 12:02:19 PM PDT by ckilmer
A lot of surviving armors were built for nobles as teens who subsequently outgrew them. Most combat tested armors were either salvaged for new suits, distributed among inheritence, or scrapped. The common landed knight in the high and late middle ages would have been indistiguishable in modern Europe in terms of height. What this study suggests is that even peasants and craftsmen would have had a good diet and healthy lifestyle. That's a new thought for sure.
And STILL they shout Global Warming and blame modern industry!
I will rewrite the title as understood by a typical college freshman
Middle Aged Men are Nearly as Tall and Modern
The door thing is brought up a lot, but if you lived in a climate with very cold winters, you would want a shorter door to keep in more heat. People just ducked a bit coming into and out of houses. (Another reason that hats were taken off before entering a house.)
You are early middle age, how many do you know at 78 who have yet half their lives to live?
"Does not sound right - every knight's armor I have ever seen is built for smaller men - and they would have been the ones to live a "good" life."
The "good" life even for nobility in 1400 was pretty grim, in regards to diet.
Also practically all the armour one sees in museums (the typical full plate variety) is from the 1400s & 1500s. You're right too, the average hight of a suit of armour then was maybe 5'6"
Armour for 900-1200 was mostly chain mail with leather or metal breast plates and such--very little remains of it as well.
King Arthur (ca. AD 500) would not have recognized the typical armour he's portrayed in, as its actually 1000 years off...
Interesting -- ping for later reading.
That's preposterous. Wheat vs. Rice.
You don't need to go to China. Go to Europe. People in Northern Europe like the Dutch, Scandinavians, Scots, etc. are a couple of inches taller than the Spaniards, Italians, Portugeuse, etc.
You take any animal, and you'll find the members of the same species living at higher latitudes to be bigger in size.
Or hell, just look here in America. Ever wonder why Native Americans here in the states are often 6'+, but amongst Mexicans of predominantly Indian blood 6 footers are rare? Same phenomenon.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Eskimos tend to be short and stocky, which helps hold in heat at the extreme latitudes. And certain tribes in Africa are very tall, but unlike the tall Northern Europeans, their height is an alternate adaptation, and that is to dissipate body heat through their thin limbs.
Same here.
Look at the uniforms from the war between the States.
The little bodies had very thin shoulders and were so tiny.
I, being 5'6", could never have worn them. I know some of the soldiers were very young, but some of the uniforms we've seen, were that of officers.
The only way I could measure, was according to our own family.
bump for middle ages atkins eaters.
Full armour was only used in the late middle ages. The armour of the time 9th to 11th centuries was generally chain mail. Think Crusaders.
They didn't shrink the people to put them in the coffins...
Nor did they lower the ceilings just so I could stand (5'6") but my friends had to bend...
Various sources give Charlemagne's height as 6'+ to 6'6". What is your source for 5.5'?
Size does matter....eat meat!!
The people those Vikings were plundering were probably less well-fed and shorter.
What is the average height for American men today?
read later
5'9" for all men.
5'9.5" for young men (18-25) on those doctor's height charts.
height is genreally related to two major factors:
1. High protein intake. It is possible that at the time, hunting was still used to obtain food and this would generally result in a larger individual.
2. Lack of chronic disease is the most important factor. IT appears that the people of that age were fairly healthy. This was probably due to a lack of large population centers that would be the centers of disease.
Men in the the 1790s were as tall as those of WWII, according to Army records. Between those times we got smaller as our cities developed due to the influx of immigrants.
A Good discussion of this is in the "The Fourth Great Awakening".
Evidence, schmevidence. It's all about feeeeeeeelings.
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