Secular changes in the height of the inhabitants of Anatolia (Turkey) from the 10th millennium B.C. to the 20th century A.D.

Özer, Başak Koca; Sağır, Mehmet; Özer, İsmail

doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2010.12.003

Cited by 20 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…After the 4th millennium, a general trend of increasing stature is observable in almost the entire study area (Lalueza-Fox 1998;Bennike 1985;Jaeger et al 1998;Roberts and Cox 2007;Giannecchini and Moggi-Cecchi 2008;Siegmund 2010;Koca Özer et al 2011;Piontek and Vančata 2012;, albeit very weak in the Aegean (cf. Angel 1984) andthe Balkans (MacIntosh et al 2016;Rosenstock and Scheibner 2018) and missing in Eurasia.…”

Section: Stature Variation In the Context Of Current Anthropometric mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, long bone lengths or body heights estimated from them-a procedure for which a variety of formulas is available (for overviews, see, e.g., Rösing 1988;Moore and Ross 2013;Zeman et al 2014)-are the only universally available proxies for stature. Several studies have so far used long bone lengths or stature estimations to address early body height development for various regions, especially in Old World Archaeology (e.g., Angel 1984;Bennike 1985;Jaeger et al 1998;Koca Özer et al 2011;Siegmund 2010;Piontek and Vančata 2012;MacIntosh et al 2016). One first broader study on Central, Western, and Northern Europe has only appeared very recently , but leaves aside Southeastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East, which are key areas for many prehistoric socioeconomic developments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Human stature in the Near East and Europe ca. 10,000–1000 BC: its spatiotemporal development in a Bayesian errors-in-variables model

Rosenstock

Ebert

Martin

et al. 2019

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A sample of 6098 published prehistoric skeletons consisting of long bone lengths, stature estimated from them using three different methods, as well as recalculated stature data created with other methods, was used to model tempo-spatial variance of stature in the Holocene prehistory of the Near East and Europe. Bayesian additive mixed modeling with errors-in-variables was applied, fitting a global spatiotemporal trend using a tensor product spline approach, a local random effect for the archaeological sites and corrections for mismeasurement and misclassification of covariates to obtain stature isoline maps for various time slices and diachronic stature trend curves for various regions. Models calculated for maximum long bone lengths and for stature are all largely consistent with each other, so Bayesian errors-in-variables models can be regarded as a viable means of smoothing regional and temporal variance in skeletal data as well as in estimation methods so that only robust trends become manifest. In addition to a general northwestsoutheast gradient in stature, tallest stature in Eurasia and declining stature in Iberia confirms archaeogenetic insights. Transition to farming shows stable, decreasing, or even increasing stature depending on the region and the mode of Neolithization, putting into question the common assumption of a general negative effect of Neolithic lifeways on physical health. Particularly, Northern Europe experienced a rise in stature after the 4th millennium BC. Likely caused by both genetics as well as generally improving living conditions, our findings date the origin of the modern NW-SE gradient in stature to around 3000 BC.

show abstract

Section: Stature Variation In the Context Of Current Anthropometric mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human stature in the Near East and Europe ca. 10,000–1000 BC: its spatiotemporal development in a Bayesian errors-in-variables model

Rosenstock

Ebert

Martin

et al. 2019

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There is relatively consistent evidence for a decline in adult body sizes associated with the transition to agriculture (209)(210)(211)(212)(213)(214). A recent systematic review found evidence of declining stature in 14 different analyses among populations from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Central and South America, and North America (215).…”

Section: Reduced Allocation To Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life History Transitions at the Origins of Agriculture: A Model for Understanding How Niche Construction Impacts Human Growth, Demography and Health

Wells

Stock

2020

Front. Endocrinol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over recent millennia, human populations have regularly reconstructed their subsistence niches, changing both how they obtain food and the conditions in which they live. For example, over the last 12,000 years the vast majority of human populations shifted from foraging to practicing different forms of agriculture. The shift to farming is widely understood to have impacted several aspects of human demography and biology, including mortality risk, population growth, adult body size, and physical markers of health. However, these trends have not been integrated within an over-arching conceptual framework, and there is poor understanding of why populations tended to increase in population size during periods when markers of health deteriorated. Here, we offer a novel conceptual approach based on evolutionary life history theory. This theory assumes that energy availability is finite and must be allocated in competition between the functions of maintenance, growth, reproduction, and defence. In any given environment, and at any given stage during the life-course, natural selection favours energy allocation strategies that maximise fitness. We argue that the origins of agriculture involved profound transformations in human life history strategies, impacting both the availability of energy and the way that it was allocated between life history functions in the body. Although overall energy supply increased, the diet composition changed, while sedentary populations were challenged by new infectious burdens. We propose that this composite new ecological niche favoured increased energy allocation to defence (immune function) and reproduction, thus reducing the allocation to growth and maintenance. We review evidence in support of this hypothesis and highlight how further work could address both heterogeneity and specific aspects of the origins of agriculture in more detail. Our approach can be applied to many other transformations of the human subsistence niche, and can shed new light on the way that health, height, life expectancy, and fertility patterns are changing in association with globalization and nutrition transition.

show abstract

“…The average height of women from Latin America and the Caribbean was 153.0-155.0 cm (14 studies from eight countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua and Peru) [45,46], while for Central Asia, this was 156.9 cm (Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan). In 2006, the average female height of Turks increased to 158.9 cm (SD 6,4), which was 6.6 cm higher than the 152.3 cm recorded in 1937 [47]. According to the results of the NCD-RisC [45] research group, the average height of African women at the beginning of the 21st century was 157.8 cm (29 studies from 27 countries).…”

Section: International Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 85%

Growth change in Polish women: Reduction of the secular trends?

Łopuszańska-Dawid

Szklarska

2020

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of the study was to analyse changes in the average height of adult Polish women born in 1931–2001 in the aspect of dynamically changing economic and socio-economic conditions of the living environment. An ethnically homogeneous group of 6,028 adult women from large Polish cities, born in 1931–2001, living between 1931 and 2020, were examined using the same research methods and research equipment. All women were divided into eight birth cohorts. The Kruskal-Wallis test and multiple regression analyses were used. Root Mean Square Standardized Effect (RMSSE), critical value of the test, and test power were calculated. The average height of women born during 70 years of the study increased by 9.63 cm, from 158.22 cm (SD = 5.57 cm) to 167.85 cm (SD = 6.91 cm) (H = 1084.84, p<0.001). The intensity of the intergenerational trend in subsequent cohorts of years of birth varied strongly between decades, averaging 1.34 cm/decade. The body height in women increased significantly up to the height of those born between 1970 and 1979 and then the trend weakened noticeably, although it remained positive. The observed secular trend confirms positive changes in the standard of living of Polish women between 1931 and 2020. Improving living conditions allow people to fully achieve their genetically determined growth potential.

show abstract

Secular changes in the height of the inhabitants of Anatolia (Turkey) from the 10th millennium B.C. to the 20th century A.D.

Cited by 20 publications

References 30 publications

Human stature in the Near East and Europe ca. 10,000–1000 BC: its spatiotemporal development in a Bayesian errors-in-variables model

Human stature in the Near East and Europe ca. 10,000–1000 BC: its spatiotemporal development in a Bayesian errors-in-variables model

Life History Transitions at the Origins of Agriculture: A Model for Understanding How Niche Construction Impacts Human Growth, Demography and Health

Growth change in Polish women: Reduction of the secular trends?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About