Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-tnzcf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-13T13:29:14.496Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New Light on the “Dark Ages”

The Remarkably Tall Stature of Northern European Men during the Medieval Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Richard H. Steckel
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Based on a modest sample of skeletons from northern Europe, average heights fell from 173.4 centimeters in the early Middle Ages to a low of roughly 167 centimeters during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Taking the data at face value, this decline of approximately 6.4 centimeters substantially exceeds any prolonged downturns found during industrialization in several countries that have been studied. Significantly, recovery to levels achieved in the early Middle Ages was not attained until the early twentieth century. It is plausible to link the decline in average height to climate deterioration; growing inequality; urbanization and the expansion of trade and commerce, which facilitated the spread of diseases; fluctuations in population size that impinged on nutritional status; the global spread of diseases associated with European expansion and colonization; and conflicts or wars over state building or religion. Because it is reasonable to believe that greater exposure to pathogens accompanied urbanization and industrialization, and there is evidence of climate moderation, increasing efficiency in agriculture, and greater interregional and international trade in foodstuffs, it is plausible to link the reversal of the long-term height decline with dietary improvements.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 28 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Recent Research in Anthropometric History , Summer 2004, pp. 211 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2004 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Arcini, C. (1999) Health and Disease in Early Lund: Osteo-Pathologic Studies of 3,305 Individuals Buried in the First Cemetery Area of Lund, 990–1536. Archaeologica Lundensia, No. 8. Lund, Sweden: Department of Community Health Sciences, Lund University.Google Scholar
Baten, J., and Murray, J. E. (2000) “Heights of men and women in 19th-century Bavaria: Economic, nutritional, and disease influences.” Explorations in Economic History 37: 351–69.Google Scholar
Bennike, P. (1985) Palaeopathology of Danish Skeletons. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Boldsen, J. (1984) “A statistical evaluation of the basis for predicting stature from lengths of long bones in European populations.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 65: 305–11.Google Scholar
Buikstra, J. E., and Ubelaker, D. H. (1994) Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey.Google Scholar
Conferees (1983) “The relationship of nutrition, disease, and social conditions: A graphical presentation.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 14: 503–6.Google Scholar
Crosby, A. W. Jr., (1972) The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Westport, CT: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Crosby, A. W. Jr. (1986) Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cuff, T. (1998) “The effects of economic development on the biological standard of living: Market integration and human stature in antebellum Pennsylvania.” Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
de Vries, J. (1976) The Economy of Europe in an Age of Crisis, 1600–1750. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
de Vries, J. (1984) European Urbanization, 1500–1800. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Drukker, J. W., and Tassenaar, V. (1997) “Paradoxes of modernization and material well-being in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century,” in Steckel, R. H. and Floud, R. (eds.) Health and Welfare during Industrialization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 331–77.Google Scholar
Fagan, B. (2000) The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300–1850. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Floud, R., and Harris, B. (1997) “Health, height, and welfare: Britain, 1700–1980,” in Steckel, R. H. and Floud, R. (eds.) Health and Welfare during Industrialization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 91–126.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. (1985) “Nutrition and the decline in mortality since 1700: Some preliminary findings,” in Engerman, S. L. and Gallman, R. E. (eds.) Long-Term Factors in American Economic Growth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 439–555.Google Scholar
Gejvall, N. G. (1960) Westerhus: Medieval Population and Church in the Light of Skeletal Remains. Lund, Sweden: H. Ohlssons.Google Scholar
Gilberg, R. (1976) “Stengade-vikingernes skeletter,” in Skaarup, J. (ed.) Stengade II: En langelandsk gravplads med grave fra romerskjernalder og vikingetid. Rudkøbing, Denmark: Langelands Museum: 220–27.Google Scholar
Hanson, C. (1992) “Population-specific stature reconstruction for medieval Trondheim, Norway.” International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 2: 289–95.Google Scholar
Hoffman, P. T., Jacks, D. S., Levin, P. A., and Lindert, P. H. (2002) “Real inequality in Europe since 1500.” Journal of Economic History 62: 322–55.Google Scholar
Hohenberg, P. M., and Lees, L. H. (1985) The Making of Urban Europe, 1000–1950. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Holck, P. (1997) Cremated Bones: A Medical-Anthropological Study of an Archaeological Material on Cremation Burials. Antropologiske skrifter, No. 1c. Oslo: Anatomical Institute, University of Oslo.Google Scholar
Holck, P., and Kvaal, S. (2000) Skjelettene fra Clemengkirken i Oslo. Antropologiske skrifter, No. 5. Oslo: Anatomical Institute, University of Oslo.Google Scholar
Huber, N. M. (1968) “The problem of stature increase: Looking from the past to the present,” in Brothwell, D. R. (ed.) The Skeletal Biology of Earlier Human Populations. Oxford, NY: Pergamon: 67–102.Google Scholar
Janssen, H. A. M., and Maat, G. J. R. (1999) Canons Buried in the ‘Stiftskapel' of the Saint Servaas Basilica at Maastricht, A.D. 1070–1521: A Paleopathological Study. Barge's Anthropologica, No. 5, 2d ed. Leiden: Leiden University Medical Center.Google Scholar
Jones, E. L. (1968) The Development of English Agriculture, 1815–1873. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1985) “Stature and nutrition in the Habsburg monarchy: The standard of living and economic development in the eighteenth century.” American Historical Review 90: 1149–61.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1989) Nutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (2000) “The Industrial Revolution as the escape from the Malthusian trap.” Journal of European Economic History 29: 307–31.Google Scholar
Kunitz, S. J. (1987) “Making a long story short: A note on men's height and mortality in England from the first through the nineteenth centuries.” Medical History 31: 269–80.Google Scholar
Larsen, C. S. (1997) Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Livi-Bacci, M. (1983) “The nutrition-mortality link in past times: A comment.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 14: 293–98.Google Scholar
Maat, G. J. R. (1984) “A search for secular growth changes in the Netherlands preceding 1850,” in Borms, J., Hauspie, R., Sand, A. , Susanne, C., and Hebbelinck, M. (eds.) Human Growth and Development. New York: Plenum: 185–91.Google Scholar
Maat, G. J. R. (2003) “Male stature: A parameter of health and wealth in the low countries, 50–1997 AD,” in Metz, W. H. (ed.) Wealth, Health, and Human Remains in Archaeology. Amsterdam: Stichting Nederlands Museum voor Anthropologie en Praehistorie: 57–88.Google Scholar
Maat, G. J. R., Mastwijk, R. W., and Sarfatij, H. (1998) Een fysisch anthropologisch onderzoek van begravenen bij het Minderbroedersklooster te Dordrecht, circa 1275–1572 AD. Amersfoort, Netherlands: Riijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek.Google Scholar
Maddison, A. (2001) The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
Malcolm, L. A. (1974) “Ecological factors relating to child growth and nutritional status,” in Roche, A. F. and Falkner, F. (eds.) Nutrition and Malnutrition: Identification and Measurement. New York: Plenum: 329–52.Google Scholar
Margo, R. A., and Steckel, R. H. (1982) “The heights of American slaves: New evidence on slave nutrition and health.” Social Science History 6: 516–38.Google Scholar
Margo, R. A., and Steckel, R. H. (1992) “The nutrition and health of slaves and antebellum southern whites,” in Fogel, R. W. and Engerman, S. L. (eds.) Without Consent or Contract: Conditions of Slave Life and the Transition to Freedom. New York: W. W. Norton: 508–21.Google Scholar
Martorell, R., and Habicht, J. P. (1986) “Growth in early childhood in developing countries,” in F. Falkner and Tanner, J. M. (eds.) Human Growth: A Comprehensive Treatise. Vol. 3. New York: Plenum: 241–62.Google Scholar
McEvedy, C., and Jones, R. (1978) Atlas of World Population History. New York: Facts on File.Google Scholar
McKeown, T. (1983) “Food, infection, and population.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 14: 227–47.Google Scholar
Molleson, T., and Cox, M. (1993) The Spitalfields Project. Vol. 2, The Anthropology. Council for British Archaeology (CBA) Research Report, No. 86. York, U.K.: CBA.Google Scholar
Munter, A. H. (1928) “A study of the lengths of the long bones of the arms and legs in man, with special reference to Anglo-Saxon skeletons.” Biometrika 28: 258–94.Google Scholar
Nicholas, S., and Steckel, R. H. (1997) “Tall but poor: Living standards of men and women in pre-famine Ireland.” Journal of European Economic History 26: 105–34.Google Scholar
O'Rourke, K. H., and Williamson, J. G. (1999) Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Parker, G., and Smith, L. M., eds. (1997) The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Razzell, P. (1993) “The growth of population in eighteenth-century England: A critical reappraisal.” Journal of Economic History 53: 743–71.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, C. E. (1962) The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sandberg, L. G., and Steckel, R. H. (1980) “Soldier, soldier, what made you grow so tall? A study of height, health, and nutrition in Sweden, 1720–1881.” Economy and History 23: 91–105.Google Scholar
Sandberg, L. G., and Steckel, R. H. (1987) “Heights and economic history: The Swedish case.” Annals of Human Biology 14: 101–10.Google Scholar
Sandberg, L. G., and Steckel, R. H. (1997) “Was industrialization hazardous to your health? Not in Sweden!,” in Steckel, R. H. and Floud, R. (eds.) Health and Welfare during Industrialization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 127–59.Google Scholar
Schmidt, I. M., Jorgensen, M. H., and Michaelsen, K. F. (1995) “Height of conscripts in Europe: Is postneonatal mortality a predictor?” Annals of Human Biology 22: 57–67.Google Scholar
Shay, T. (1994) “The level of living in Japan, 1885–1938: New evidence,” in Komlos, J. (ed.) Stature, Living Standards, and Economic Development: Essays in Anthropometric History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 173–201.Google Scholar
Steckel, R. H. (1983) “Height and per capita income.” Historical Methods 16: 1–7.Google Scholar
Steckel, R. H. (1995) “Stature and the standard of living.” Journal of Economic Literature 33: 1903–40.Google Scholar
Steckel, R. H. (1998) “Strategic ideas in the rise of the new anthropometric history and their implications for interdisciplinary research.” Journal of Economic History 58: 803–21.Google Scholar
Steckel, R. H. (2003) “Research project: A history of health in Europe from the late Paleolithic era to the present.” Economics and Human Biology 1: 139–42.Google Scholar
Steckel, R. H., and Floud, R., eds. (1997) Health and Welfare during Industrialization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Steckel, R. H., and Rose, J. C. (2002) The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Steffensen, J. (1958) “Stature as a criterion of the nutritional level of Viking age Icelanders,” in Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags, fylgirit 1958. Reykjavik: Icelandic Archaeological Society: 39–51.Google Scholar
Szreter, S. (1988) “The importance of social intervention in Britain's mortality decline c. 1850–1914: A reinterpretation of the role of public health.” Social History of Medicine 1: 1–37.Google Scholar
Tanner, J. M. (1978) Fetus into Man: Physical Growth from Conception to Maturity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tracy, M. (1964) Agriculture in Western Europe. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Trotter, M. (1970) “Estimation of stature from long limb bones,” in Stewart, T. D. (ed.) Personal Identification in Mass Disasters. Washington, DC: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution: 71–119.Google Scholar
Trotter, M., and Gleser, G. C. (1952) “Estimation of stature from long bones of American whites and Negroes.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 10: 463–514.Google Scholar
Trow-Smith, R. (1967) Life from the Land: The Growth of Farming in Western Europe. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Weir, D. R. (1997) “Economic welfare and physical well-being in France, 1750–1990,” in Steckel, R. H. and Floud, R. (eds.) Health and Welfare during Industrialization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 161–200.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L. (1985) “The stature of some medieval Swedish populations.” Fornvännen 80: 133–41.Google Scholar
White, T. D. (1991) Human Osteology. San Diego, CA: Academic.Google Scholar