Anthropometry, physical anthropology, and the reconstruction of ancient health, nutrition, and living standards

Historia - Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte

Volumn 54, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 68-83

  Kron, Geoffrey ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA   (Canada)

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EID: 61049097690     PISSN: 00182311     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (94)

1. I would like to thank M. B. Wallace for reading an earlier draft of this paper and for his helpful suggestions. For a brief introduction to the history of anthropometry and its re-emergence as an important historical discipline, at least in modern history, see J. M. Tanner, "Introduction: Growth in Height as a Mirror of the Standard of Living," in J. Komlos (ed.) Stature, Living Standards, and Economic Development - Essays in Anthropometric History (Chicago 1994) 3-5.
2. For an introduction to its historical importance and methodology see R. W. Fogel, S. L. Engerman, J. Trussell, "Exploring the Uses of Data on Height: The Analysis of Long-Term Trends in Nutrition, Labor Welfare, and Labor Productivity," Social Science History 6 (1982) 401-21;
3. J. M. Tanner, "The Potential of Auxological Data for Monitoring Economic and Social Well-Being," Social Science History 6 (1982) 57-81;
4. J. Komlos, "De l'importance de l'histoire anthropométrique, " Annales de démographie historique 1995, 212-21.
5. The concepts of net nutrition, biological standard of living, and final height will be explained more fully below. Although several physical anthropologists have pointed out the importance of height as an index of nutrition and health, the only ancient historian, to the best of my knowledge, who has noticed the relevance of the critical early modern anthropometric research is Peter Garnsey in his Food and Society in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge 1999) 57-9. His brief discussion makes very little use of this new evidence, however, and persists in the generally pessimistic assessment of ancient nutrition maintained in his earlier work.
6. See, for example, Z. Yavetz, "The Living Conditions of the Urban Plebs in Republican Rome," Latomus 17 (1958) 500-517;
7. P. Brunt, "The Roman Mob," Past & Present 35 (1966) 3-27;
8. A. Scobie "Slums, Sanitation, and Mortality in the Roman World," Klio 68 (1986) 399-433.
9. More generally: A. Toynbee, Hannibal's Legacy, vol. 1 (Oxford 1965);
10. P. A. Brunt, Italian Manpower (Oxford 1971);
11. P. A. Brunt, Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic (Oxford 1971);
12. K. Hopkins, Death and Renewal (Cambridge, 1983);
13. P. Garnsey, "Mass Diet and Nutrition in the City of Rome," in A. Giovannini (ed.) Nourrir la plèbe - Actes du colloque tenu à Genève les 28 et 29. IX. 1989 en hommage à Denis Van Berchem (Basel 1991) 67-99.
14. See, for example, G. E. Fussell, J. H. Treble, Urban Poverty in Britain 1830-1914 (London 1979);
15. J. Burnett, Plenty and Want (London 1979);
16. J. Burnett, A Social History of Housing (London 1986);
17. W. F. Bynum, R. Porter (edd.) Living and Dying in London (London 1991).
18. For an incisive critique of the methodology of Toynbee, Legacy (as in n. 2) and Brunt, Manpower (as in n. 2), among others, particularly their use of anecdotal literary evidence, see J. K. Evans, "Plebs rustica: the Peasantry of Roman Italy I. The Peasantry in Modern Scholarship: a Methodological Critique," AJAH 5 (1980) 19-47.
19. L. R. Villermé, "Mémoire sur la taille de l'homme en France," Annales d'hygiène publique 1 (1829) 551-9;
20. A. M. Quetelet, Sur l'homme et le développement de ses facultés. Essai sur physique sociale (Paris 1835). The English Parliament created an Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Degeneration whose report was published in 1904 and such inquiries also inspired many independent studies.
21. See R. Floud, K. Wachter, A. Gregory, Height, Health and History -Nutritional Status in the United Kingdom (Cambridge 1990) 115-6; 306-7.
22. For widespread alarm at the undernutrition and stunted growth of many members of the English working class see also R. S. Rowntree, Poverty. A Study of Town Life (London 1910) 216-7;
23. J. Cantlie, Deterioration amongst Londoners (London 1885).
24. For the relationship between the height of conscripts and final height see Floud et al., Health (as in n. 5) 22. Under conditions of poor nutrition the growth spurt continues through the typical conscription age of 18 to 21 and conscription heights can therefore underestimate final height by as much as 1-2%.
25. See P. B. Eveleth, J. M. Tanner, Worldwide Variation in Human Growth (Cambridge 1976).
26. For documentation of the relative effects of nutrition, sickness, and psychological stress on growth see Eveleth et al., Variation 1st edn. (as in n. 7) 241-7; 260.
27. For the intractable problems facing the reconstruction of working class living standards from preserved econometric statistics in England, see, for example, L. D. Schwarz, "Standard of Living in the Long Run: London, 1700-1860," Economic History Review 38 (1985) 2nd ser., 24-41;
28. J. Mokyr, "Is There Still Life in the Pessimist Case? Consumption in the Industrial Revolution, 1790-1850," Journal of Economic History 48 (1988) 209-35;
29. See, for example, E. Horlings, J.-P. Smits, "The Quality of Life in the Netherlands, 1800-1913. Experiments in Measurement and Aggregation," in J. Komlos, J. Baten (eds.) The Biological Standard of Living in Comparative Perspective (Stuttgart 1998) 321-43.
30. For the decline in American heights see Komlos, L'histoire (as in n. 1)215;
31. and R. Floud et al., Health (as in n. 5) 25 figure 1. 6.
32. For other evidence of height variation based on social class in early Modern Europe see J. Komlos, J. Tanner, "The Growth of Boys in the Stuttgart Carlschule: 1771-93," Annals of Human Biology 19 (1992) 143 Table 4; 150 Tables 8 and 9;
33. J. Komlos, "The Nutritional Status of French Students," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 24 (1993) 500-1;
34. P. Thane, The Foundations of the Welfare State (London 1996) 159.
35. See also P. B. Eveleth, J. M. Tanner, Worldwide Variation in Human Growth, 2nd edn. (Cambridge 1990) 198-200.
36. R. Floud, K. W. Wachter, "Poverty and Physical Stature: Evidence on the Standard of Living of London Boys 1770-1870," Social Science History 6 (1982) 422-452.
37. See Eveleth, Variation, 1st edn. (as in n. 7) 247-9.
38. Eveleth et al., Variation, 2nd edn. (as in n. 11) 198-201.
39. See V. J. Knapp, "The Democratization of Meat and Protein in late Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Europe," The Historian 59 (1997) 541-51.
40. M. Livi Bacci, Popolazione e alimentazione -Saggio sulla storia demografica europea (Bologna 1987) 126 gives per capita meat consumption in Italy of 13 kg per year in 1861-70, rising to 30 kg per year in the 1930s.
41. P. Auriol, "Animal Production in the Mediterranean Region: Present Situation, Problems and Future Trends," in Isotope Aided Studies on Livestock Productivity in Mediterranean and North African Countries (Vienna 1988) 17, Table VI gives per capita meat consumption of 64 kg per year in Mediterranean Europe today, compared to 107. 9 kg per year in the USA.
42. commenting upon T. McKeown, The Modern Rise of Population (London 1976).
43. For the serious distorting biases of such sources as gravestones in reconstructing demographic data see, for example, K. K. Éry, "Investigations on the Demographic Source Value of Tombstones Originating from the Roman Period," Alba Regia 10 (1969) 51-67;
44. M. Sgarlata, Richerche di demografia storica. Le iscrizioni tardo-imperiali di Siracusa (Vatican City 1991) 29;
45. T. Parkin, Demography and Roman Society (Baltimore 1992).
46. For the inadequacy of most methods used at present see S. Mays, The Archaeology of Human Bones (London 1998) 55-7.
47. See S. C. Bisel, J. L. Angel, "Health and Nutrition in Mycenean Greece: A Study in Human Skeletal Remains," in N. Wilkie, W. D. E. Coulson (eds.) Contributions to Aegean Archaeology: Studies in honour of William A. MacDonald (Minneapolis 1985) 203, Table 4.
48. See also H. S. Robinson, "Skeletal Biology of Corinth from Prehistoric through Byzantine Times," Research Reports - National Geographic Society 16 (1984) 571 Table 2. These results are corroborated by recent excavations in Athens' Kerameikos cemetery showing a mean male height of 171. 3 cm (n = 4).
49. See W. K. Kovacsovics, Die Eckterrasse an der Gräberstraße des Kerameikos. Kerameikos -Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen XIV (Berlin 1990) 159 Table 7. Angel uses the Trotter and Gleser method for whites, which arguably gives very slightly exaggerated results compared to the more conservative Olivier method. See further in the appendix, below.
50. I have examined over 66 studies so far, but only include here those which offer an estimate of mean height based upon at least 3 adult male skeletons. Linear regression analysis of the results revealed no statistically significant patterns or trends in height based upon either date or region, so I have chosen to concentrate upon fixing a broad average here and to postpone discussion of possible regional or diachronic variation.
51. See M. Trotter, G. C. Gleser, "Estimation of Stature from Long Bones of American Whites and Negroes," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 10 (1952) 484.
52. An illustration of this effect is provided by J. Schibier, A. R. Furger, Die Tierknochenfunde aus Augusta Raurica (Grabungen 1955-1974) (Augst 1988) 178-88 where, of the eight male corpses allowing height measurements, the young males average 171. 4 cm and the older men 165 cm.
53. Full references are provided at the end of the paper. The values for N represent the number of distinct individuals studied, but are necessarily tentative given the state of preservation of many disarticulated skeletons, and I compile them here despite their uncertainty in order to allow calculation of a weighted average. When the article does not provide this information, I estimate the minimum number of individuals which can be inferred from the specific long bones found, or simply divide the total number of long bones studied by 3. Assuming the preservation of 3 of the 8 long bones, while arbitrary, provides a conservative but still realistic estimate of the number of individuals represented. The method of height estimation is of critical importance and is described in the appendix, below. Dr. Estelle Lazer kindly informs me that her anthropometric study of remains from Pompeii were measured using the Trotter-Gleser formulae, but as I was unable to confirm the number of individuals studied in time, I have not been able to include her study in Table 1.
54. J.-P. Aron, P. Dumont, E. Le Roy Ladurie, Anthropologie du conscrit français d'après les comptes numériques et sommaires du recrutement de l'armée (1819-1826). Présentation cartographique (Paris 1972) 228.
55. Istituto Centrale di Statistica, Sommario di statistiche storiche dell'Italia 1861-1965 (Rome 1968) 14, Tavola 6.
56. F. C. Schneid, Soldiers of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy - Army, State, and Society 1800-1815 (Boulder, Colorado 1995) 72.
57. V. G . Valoras, "Biometric Studies of Army Conscripts in Greece - Mean Stature and ABO Blood-group Distribution," Human Biology 42 (1970) 184-201.
58. Valoras, Conscripts (as in n. 29) 189 Table 4.
59. R. Floud, "Heights of Europeans since 1750: A New Source for European Economic History," in J. Komlos, Stature, Living Standards, and Economic Development - Essays in Anthropometric History (Chicago 1994) 16-9 Table 1 reveals a striking number of mid 20th Century nations whose conscripts had mean heights in the 172 cm range, as will be illutrated below.
60. See K. L. Sokoloff, G. C. Villaflor, "The Early Achievement of Modern Stature in America," Social Science History 6 (1982) 453-81;
61. Robert W. Fogel et al., "Secular Changes in American and British Stature and Nutrition," The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 14 (1983) 463 table 1: average heights for army recruits in World War II and the Civil War: 68. 2" (173. 2 cm).
62. Near modern heights are also attested in German cemeteries from the first three centuries AD. J. Wahl, M. Kokabi, Das römische Gräberfeld von Stettfeld I - Osteologische Untersuchungen aus dem Gräberfeld (Stuttgart 1983) 102, Table 12 lists average heights for males at German cemeteries: Hamfelde average 172. 1 cm; Süderbrarup 172. 3 cm; Stettfeld 171. 1 cm; Schwankweiler (Bitburg) 172. 7 cm; Roßdorf (Darmstadt) around 173 cm; Groß-Gerau 173. 3 cm. We have to be aware of the possibility, however, that the principal gravesites were reserved for the warrrior class, and that their base-born followers were denied proper burial.
63. Americans enjoyed a diet rich in meat from a very early period, with per capita annual meat consumption of 96. 6 kg in 1839, declining to 73 kg by 1879 under increased population pressure. See J. Komlos, "Antebellum Dietary Change," Journal of Economic History 47, no. 4 (1987) 913, Table 9.
64. Meat consumption through most of the 20th Century has remained closer to this reduced level up until World War II, fluctuatinging between a high of 73. 5 kg in 1908 and a low of 52. 6 kg in 1935 - see L. A. Stoddart, A. D. Smith, Range Management (New York, 1943) 9, Table 8 -before climbing to 107. 6 kg today (n. 17, above).
65. For the low Standards of U. S. sanitation and the absence of effective sewerage throughout much of the 19th Century see, for example, S. Galishoff, Newark-The Nation's Unhealthiest City 1832-95 (New Brunswick, N. J. 1988) 118 n. 18.
66. R. Floud, Heights (as in n. 33) Table 1. 1.
67. M. Henneberg, R. J. Henneberg, "Biological Characteristics of the Population based upon Analysis of Skeletal Remains," in J. C. Carter, The Chora of Metaponto - The Necropoleis II (Austin 1998) 520 points out the similarity between contemporary Southern Italian heights and those of their own sample, and remark that the physical characteristics of the population seem to have changed very little in the last 2500 years. Had they been aware of the recent anthropometric history of Italy, of course, they would have realized that contemporary heights had only very recently returned to ancient levels.
68. Conscription statistics broken down into Northern and Southern Italy show that as late as 1948, 20 year old Southern Italians averaged only 164. 3 cm. See Floud, Heights (as in n. 33) Table 1. 1.
69. J. L. Angel, "Colonial to Modern Skeletal Changes in the U. S. A.," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 45, no. 2-3 (1976) 725 Table 1. The measurements were made from skeletal remains of individuals dying accidentally, and no correction for height loss through aging or disease was thought necessary.
70. Also note p. 190 Table 4. 8 listing a maximum height for the cohort born between 1810 and 1814 (fixed Standard Deviation) of 66. 18 in. = 168. 1 cm.
71. I hope to demonstrate elsewhere that the Augustan censuses of 28 BC, 8 BC, and 14 AD must be interpreted as giving adult male citizen counts of 4,063,000, 4,233,000, and 4,937,000 respectively, implying a population of Augustan Italy somewhere between 15 and 18 million, roughly comparable to that of early 19th Century Italy. In the meantime, see E. Lo Cascio, "The Size of the Roman Population: Beloch and the Meaning of the Augustan Census Figures," JRS 84 (1994) 23-40.
72. For a high degree of urbanization in Greco-Roman antiquity see H. W. Pieket, "Die Landwirtschaft in der römischen Kaiserzeit," in Europäische Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte in der Römischen Kaiserzeit I (Stuttgart 1990) 79-85.
73. Evidence for the Greek population is much sketchier and controversial, but a sensible recent survey of the evidence and relevant scholarship places the Attic population at a level comparable to that in 1961. See M. Whitby, "Athenian Grain Trade in the Fourth Century BC," in H. Parkins, C. Smith (eds.) Trade, Traders, and the Ancient City (London 1998) 109-114.
74. The population of the USA was only 3,929,000 in 1790 and in the absence of any meaningful constraints on good arable land grew at an explosive 3. 3-3. 6% annual rate through most of the early 19th Century - see C. Taeuber, I. C. Taeuber, The Changing Population of the United States (New York 1958) 5, Table I.
75. S. Kirchengast, E.-M. Winkler, "Populations- und schichtspezifische Körperhöhenunterschiede in Österreich von der Römerzeit bis zum Barock," Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 121 (1991) 203-20.
76. Angel et al., Nutrition (as in n. 22) 203, Table 4 or Robinson, Biology (as in n. 22)571 Table 2.
77. For a discussion of the many competing methods and bibliographical references see V. Formicola, "Stature Reconstruction from Long Bones in Ancient Population Samples: An Approach to the Problem of its Reliability," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 90 (1993) 351-8; and the references in note 60, below.
78. L. Manouvrier, "La détermination de la taille d'après les grands os des membres," Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 4 (1893) 347-402;
79. K. Pearson, "Mathematical Contribution to the Theory of Evolution: On the Reconstruction of the Stature of Prehistoric Races," Philosophical Transactions. Royal Society of London 192 (1899) 169-244.
80. See Trotter and Gleser, Estimation (as in n. 25) 502-3;
81. G. Olivier, H. Tissier, "Détermination de la stature et de la capacité cranienne," Bulletin et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris Ser. XIII, 1 (1975) 1-11.
82. The inaccuracy of the Manouvrier method, which tends to underestimate the heights of most Roman, Medieva], or modern remains by about 2. 7 cm compared to the most recent methods, can be confirmed by noting the coherence between the Trotter-Gleser and other modern methods with heights measured in situ or calculated using the anatomical or Fully-Pineau method.
83. See J. Bolsden, "Statistical Evaluation of the Basis for Predicting Stature from Long Bone Lengths in European Populations," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 65 (1984) 305-11;
84. M. J. Becker, "Calculating Stature from in situ Measurements of Skeletons and from Long Bone Lengths: an Historical Perspective Leading to a Test of Formicola's Hypothesis at 5th Century BCE Satricum, Lazio, Italy," Rivista di Antropologia 77 (1999) 225-47.
85. See Olivier et al., Stature (as in n. 61);
86. G. Olivier, C. Aaron, G. Fully, G. Tissier, "New Estimation of Stature and Cranial Capacity in Modern Man," Journal of Human Evolution 7 (1978)513-8;
87. V. Formicola, Stature Reconstruction (as in n. 59).
88. For the tendency of the Trotter and Gleser formulae, like many other recent formulae, to over-estimate the heights of small Neolithic skeletons, see V. Formicola, "Stature in Italian Prehistoric Samples with Particular Reference to Methodological Problems," Homo 34 (1983) 33-47;
89. Formicola, Stature Reconstruction (as in n. 59).
90. The conversion is based upon following method. The published height according to the Manouvrier method is assumed to be based first upon a single mean femur length and then upon a single mean humerus length (the two most valuable long bones for height estimates); the heights calculated by the Olivier regression formulae using these two results are then calculated and averaged. Some inaccuracy is likely since the mean heights published are based upon a weighted average of a wide range of different long bone lengths, and the Manouvrier tables deviate somewhat from a true linear relationship, nevertheless, while the results are less secure than a calculation based upon the actual bone lengths, they are significantly more satisfactory than the uncorrected Manouvrier figures and should approximate the actual Olivier value fairly closely. The same method is used for converting the Pearson formulae.
91. Since it has been found (see Floud et al.,Health [as in n. 2] 15-6; 190) that human populations are normally distributed for height with a standard deviation ranging between 5. 8 cm and 7. 1 cm, independent of the actual mean, it is easy to calculate the standard error of means as no more than 7. 1 cm divided by the square root of the sample size.
92. See, for example, J. W. Mueller (ed.) Sampling in Archaeology (Tucson, 1975);
93. J. F. Cherry, C. Gamble et al., Sampling in Contemporary British Archaeology (Oxford 1978) for discussion of methodology.
94. S. M. Borgognini Tarli, F. Mazzotta, "Physical Anthropology of Italy from the Bronze Age to the Barbaric Age," in B. Kandler-Pálsson (ed.) Ethnogenese europäischer Völker (Stuttgart 1986) 147-72.