PuddingFeeling907@lemmy.world
on 28 Feb 2024 20:28
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People didn’t live as long in those days.
Zane@aussie.zone
on 28 Feb 2024 20:58
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"And that’s not because ancient Romans and Greeks weren’t living to a ripe old age.
Per the article: “While average life expectancy before the common era was roughly half of what it is today, the age of 35 was hardly considered ‘old’ for the time. The median age of death in ancient Greece was, by some estimates, closer to 70 years, which means that half of society was living even longer than that. Hippocrates himself, the famous Greek physician and so-called father of medicine, is thought to have died in his 80s or 90s.”
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People didn’t live as long in those days.
Per the article: “While average life expectancy before the common era was roughly half of what it is today, the age of 35 was hardly considered ‘old’ for the time. The median age of death in ancient Greece was, by some estimates, closer to 70 years, which means that half of society was living even longer than that. Hippocrates himself, the famous Greek physician and so-called father of medicine, is thought to have died in his 80s or 90s.”
Life expectancy was low in the past because of high rates of infant and childhood mortality, not because people who survived to adulthood died young.