01 Sep 2004
Men from Middle Ages were nearly as tall as today

Apparently the Dark Ages weren't quite so dark after all - this surely does fly in the face of conventional wisdom.

Northern European men living during the early Middle Ages were nearly as tall as their modern-day American descendants, a finding that defies conventional wisdom about progress in living standards during the last millennium. ''Men living during the early Middle Ages (the ninth to 11th centuries) were several centimeters taller than men who lived hundreds of years later, on the eve of the Industrial Revolution,'' said Richard Steckel, a professor of economics at Ohio State University and the author of a new study that looks at changes in average heights during the last millennium.

(link) [Science Blog]

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