
STAMPEDE
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Pre-modern times
Certain ancient human populations were quite tall, even surpassing the average height of the tallest of modern countries. For instance, certain hunter-gatherer populations living in Europe during the Paleolithic Era and India during the Mesolithic Period averaged heights of around 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) for males, and 172 cm (5 ft 8 in) for females.Physical remains of people of the Gravettian have revealed that they were tall and relatively slender people. The male height of the Gravettian culture ranged between 179 and 188 centimetres (5 ft 10 in and 6 ft 2 in) tall with an average of 183.5 centimetres (6 ft 0.2 in), which is exceptionally tall not only for that period of prehistory, but for all periods of history.
They were fairly slender and normally weighed between 67–73 kilograms (148–161 lb), although they would likely have had a higher ratio of lean muscle mass compared to body fat in comparison to modern humans as a result of a very physically active and demanding lifestyle.
Human height worldwide sharply declined with the advent of the Neolithic Revolution, likely due to significantly less protein consumption by agriculturalists as compared with hunter-gatherers.
During the Bronze Age, height varied significantly by region. The people of the Indus Valley Civilization were among the tallest in the world, with an average height of 176 cm (5 ft 9 in) for males and 166 cm (5 ft 5 in) for females. The people of Ancient Egypt stood around 167 cm (5 ft 6 in) for males and 157 cm (5 ft 2 in) for females. The Ancient Greeks averaged 166 cm (5 ft 5 in) for males and 154 cm (5 ft 1 in) for females. The Romans were slightly taller, with an average height of 169 cm (5 ft 7 in) for males and 158 cm (5 ft 2 in) for females.
18th century
In the first half of the eighteenth century, the average height of an English male was 165 cm (5 ft 5 in), and the average height of an Irish male was 168 cm (5 ft 6 in), according to a study by economist John Komlos and Francesco Cinnirella. The estimated mean height of English, German, and Scottish soldiers was 163 cm (5 ft 4 in) − 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) for the period as a whole, while that of Irish was 167 cm (5 ft 6 in). The average height of male slaves and convicts in North America was 171 cm (5 ft 7 in).Before the mid-nineteenth century, there were cycles in height, with periods of increase and decrease; however, apart from the decline associated with the transition to agriculture, examinations of skeletons show no significant differences in height from the Neolithic Revolution through the early 1800s.
19th century
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, people of European descent in North America were far taller than those in Europe and were one of the tallest in the world. The original indigenous population of Plains Native Americans was also among the tallest populations of the world at the time. Some studies also suggest that there existed the correlation between the height and the realwage, moreover, the correlation was higher among the less developed countries. The difference in height between children from different social classes was already observed by the age of two.The average height of Americans and Europeans decreased during periods of rapid industrialization, possibly due to rapid population growth and broad decreases in economic status. This has become known as the early-industrial growth puzzle (in the U.S. context the Antepellum Puzzle). In England during the early nineteenth century, the difference between the average height of English upper-class youth (students of Sandhurst Military Academy) and English working-class youth (Marine Society boys) reached 22 cm (8.7 in), the highest that has been observed.
In general, there were no significant differences in regional height levels throughout the nineteenth century. The only exceptions of this rather uniform height distribution were people in the Anglo-Saxon settlement regions who were taller than the average and people from Southeast Asia with below-average heights. However, at the end of the nineteenth century and in the middle of the first globalization period, heights between rich and poor countries began to diverge. These differences did not disappear in the deglobalization period of the two World wars. In 2014, Baten and Blum found that in the nineteenth century, important determinants of height were the local availability of cattle, meat and milk as well as the local disease environment. In the late twentieth century, however, technologies and trade became more important, decreasing the impact of local availability of agricultural products.
Netherlands
Data derived from burials show that before 1850, the mean stature of males and females in Leiden, the Netherlands was respectively 167 cm (5 ft 6 in) and 156 cm (5 ft 1 in). The average height of 19-year-old Dutch orphans in 1865 was 160 cm (5 ft 3 in).From 1830 to 1857, the average height of a Dutch person decreased, even while Dutch real GNP per capita was growing at an average rate of more than 0.5% per year. The worst decline was in urban areas that in 1847, the urban height penalty was 2.5 cm (1.0 in). Urban mortality was also much higher than in rural regions. In 1829, the average urban and rural Dutchman was 164 cm (5 ft 5 in). By 1856, the average rural Dutchman was 162 cm (5 ft 4 in) and urban Dutchman was 158 cm (5 ft 2 in).
In the late nineteenth century, the Netherlands was a land renowned for its short population, but as of 2012 Dutch people were among the world's tallest, with young men averaging 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) tall.
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