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Bampot@lemmy.world

What age was actually considered ‘old’ in Medieval Europe? (www.skeptic.org.uk)

submitted 6 days ago by Bampot@lemmy.world to c/jingszo@lemmy.world

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Picture a stereotypical scene in a medieval village. What do you imagine? Children playing in the dirty unpaved street perhaps, maybe two men on top of a cottage fixing the thatch, perhaps a young woman sweeping the front step, worrying about her elderly 35-year-old mother who is dying in the back room… of old age.

What’s wrong with this picture?

According to many articles discussing popular misconceptions about history, there’s a pervasive myth that people died of old age in their mid 30s, and that ancient Greeks or Romans “would have been flabbergasted to see anyone above the age of 50 or 60.”

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[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's the problem of using the "average life span". It's not that people died in their 30's, but that so many children died before even the first year that they lowered the average life span that much. But in reality, if you survived the child age, there was a good chance you made it up to your 50-60's.

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 5 points 5 days ago

Might be better later than to look at median instead of average. Though best would be some kind of contingent average, I think. Like, average life span for people who lived past 15/18/21 whatever number best covers for childhood mortality.