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Think Everyone Died Young in Ancient Societies? Think Again

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 17 2018, @11:02PM   
from the it's-not-logan's-run dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

People in the past were not all dead by 30. Ancient documents confirm this. In the 24th century BCE, the Egyptian Vizier Ptahhotep wrote verses about the disintegrations of old age. The ancient Greeks classed old age among the divine curses, and their tombstones attest to survival well past 80 years. Ancient artworks and figurines also depict elderly people: stooped, flabby, wrinkled.

This is not the only type of evidence, however. Studies on extant traditional people who live far away from modern medicines and markets, such as Tanzania's Hadza or Brazil's Xilixana Yanomami, have demonstrated that the most likely age at death is far higher than most people assume: it's about 70 years old. One study found that although there are differences in rates of death in various populations and periods, especially with regards to violence, there is a remarkable similarity between the mortality profiles of various traditional peoples.

High infant mortality and inaccuracy at the other end of the age range skew the numbers.

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Original Submission

• Re:And people knew the earth was round (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:50AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:50AM (#708650)

  people were afraid to fall off the edge of the earth

  I heard this was a psyop by the Phoenicians/Carthaginians so no one would find out where they were mining all that silver and tin. They didn't want anyone else exploring the impassable Mare Tenebrosum.

  The Syracusan (Greek 100bc) historian Diodorus said the Carthaginians had a "large island" which was located "far out in the Atlantic ocean" - on which there were "many mountains" and "large navigable rivers". The land was rich in gold, gems, spices, etc. He stated that the Phoenicians had found it "by accident" while founding colonies on the west coast of Africa when some ships got lost. The Atlantic currents do in fact run straight at South America from that region so it would be possible for a lost ship to travel there, and the return voyage would be made easier by following the oceanic currents north then back east across the ocean. In fact this has happened in recent years, a small African fishing boat got lost in a storm and ended up on the coast of Brazil! In 1488 a certain Jean Cousin of Dieppe France, while sailing down the west coast of Africa was caught in a storm and blown across to Brazil. (This is four years prior to Columbus's more famous voyage.) The actual meteorological conditions do support this as probable. Diodorus said they (the Carthaginians) were "keeping it secret"!
  [...]
  Aristotle mentioned that the Carthaginians had once attempted a colony in their "secret land" but later withdrew it, blocking others from attempting it including their allies the Etruscans and even the Tyrians fleeing the wrath of Alexander.

  https://phoenicia.org/carthanewworld.html [phoenicia.org]

  Parent

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