cybalist message #440cybalist: Re: Goliath and Uriah the Hittite as IE
"When speaking of ancient 'giants', some perspective is needed. By
ancient standards, all of us here are probably on the gigantic side. When you
look at mediaeval suits of armor, or at life-size portraits dating from the
Renaissance, you realize what a bunch of midgets our ancestors were -- or
rather, what a bunch of giants their descendants have become, the result of
several generations of hypernutrition and the miracles of modern medicine. I'm
six feet, and don't think of myself as particularly tall, but by ancient
standards, I'm a giant. "
What about some of those Chinese mummies - they were actually
quite tall - over six feet, including some of the women! Not everybody was short
in ancient times. Quite a few ancient Celtic and Germanic skeletons come in
around six feet, if not taller.
I think it had more to do with diet and environment. Where the
people were better fed and got more exercise, they had a tendency to be taller
if it was in their genetic makeup to allow for it.