Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Gregori Galofré-Vilà
Author-Workplace-Name: Dept of Sociology and Mansfield College, University of Oxford
Author-Email: gregori.galofre-vila@sociology.ox.ac.uk
Author-Name: Andrew Hinde
Author-Workplace-Name: Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, University of Southampton
Author-Name: Aravinda Guntupalli
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Health and Social Care, Open University
Title: Heights across the last 2000 years in England
Abstract: This paper uses a dataset of heights calculated from the femurs of skeletal remains to explore
the development of stature in England across the last two millennia. We find that heights increased
during the Roman period and then steadily fell during the ‘Dark Ages’ in the early medieval period. At
the turn of the first millennium heights grew rapidly, but after 1200 they started to decline coinciding
with the agricultural depression, the Great Famine and the Black Death. Then they recovered to reach a
plateau which they maintained for almost 300 years, before falling on the eve of industrialisation. The
data show that average heights in England in the early nineteenth century were shorter than those in
Roman times, and that average heights reported between 1400 and 1700 were similar to those of the
twentieth century. The paper also discusses the association of heights across time with some potential
determinants and correlates (real wages, inequality, food supply, climate change and expectation of
life), showing that in the long run heights change with these variables, and that in certain periods,
notably the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the associations are observable over the shorter run as
well. We also examine potential biases surrounding the use of skeletal remains.
X-Classification-JEL:
Keywords: Health, Height, England, Skeletal remains
Length: 38 pages
Creation-Date: 2017-01-25
Number: _151
File-URL: http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/papers/14997/151-final.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_151