What did humans look like in Abraham's day?

[Medicine*Woman]

*************
M*W: Just curious about this, but what did humans in Abraham's day look like?

What did humans look like in Moses' day? Jesus' day? look like?

We kind of know what the Romans looked like from their busts and statues and such, but how tall were these ancient people compared to us today?

I've always had an interest in human development, and I believe we've grown a lot just in this past century. But what about the ancients? Any scientific information would be great!

Thanks!

 

[Athelwulf]

I don't see how we should look much different now from what we looked like in the past. Sure, we could be taller or fatter, but otherwise we should be very similar.

 

[Michael]

Romans were about 5'4" on average and the barbarians/Germans averaged about 5'8"
(and were considered like Giants!)

But if you look at how small the English and Asians used to be (just go into an English pub and duck through the door) or visit Asia and see the old Japanese or Chinese and then look at their kids - Jesus the Kids are tall (modern Beijing being a great example). The difference is in terms of the amount of protein kids eat compared with the parents.

I personally think that the kings and lords ate lots of meat and were probably 5-8 inches taller than the "little folk". Hence it was easier to rule over them.

That's my thinking anyway

 

[Hapsburg]

Like Mike said, Western europeans were about 5'4", 5'5". Germanic tribes were about 5'8".

Here's what I find interesting (my Latin teacher told us this): what the Hebrews of David's day called "philistines" were really just Myceneans. By that time, the Myceneans had conquered Crete and driven out the the Minoans. The term "Philistine" comes from "philistas", which is another name for Crete.
The average Mycenean grew to about 6' 6" to 6' 9" tall. Goliath was supposedly an above-average-sized Philistine, three cubits high. This puts him at about 7'7" to 8' tall, most likely. Add to that the plumed helmets which were used by Mycenean warriors, and he's gonna look about 9' tall. Three cubits can be transmeasured as around nine feet.
So, in reality, the Hebrews were just fighting Greek colonists in the region.
This makes the story of David and Goliath the most probable biblical story to actually happen, albeit exaggerated in the tale for entertainment value. The story was probably just a reflection and interperetation of the war between the Mycenaean colonists and the Hebrew inhabitants of the region.

 

[Gordon]

There is no reason to suppose that people looked much different to today with the usual mix of racial characteristics etc.

Height is not as simple as 'people were shorter in ancient times'. Clearly as pointed out, there are racial factors at work. Oriental peoples (China Japan, Indo China etc.) tend to still be much smaller than europeans for instance and you would have expected a similar mix in ancient times.

The smaller people in the recent past (as in the UK) is to do with nutrition. As the industrial revolution gained pace, poorer people moved into the cities and ate an even poorer diet than when they were in the country. The result was that the time when UK pople were shortest was in the Victorian era when men were about 5' 2" generally and women about 5' 0". As affluence increased and food distribution methods improved, people grew taller again and so as at 2006 the heights are about 5' 9" and about 5' 5". Women have increased in height by about 1.5 inches since 1951 when the UK still had food rationing (not abolished until 1954 - which may surprise a few of you in the USA!).

 

[Medicine*Woman]

There is no reason to suppose that people looked much different to today with the usual mix of racial characteristics etc.

Height is not as simple as 'people were shorter in ancient times'. Clearly as pointed out, there are racial factors at work. Oriental peoples (China Japan, Indo China etc.) tend to still be much smaller than europeans for instance and you would have expected a similar mix in ancient times.

The smaller people in the recent past (as in the UK) is to do with nutrition. As the industrial revolution gained pace, poorer people moved into the cities and ate an even poorer diet than when they were in the country. The result was that the time when UK pople were shortest was in the Victorian era when men were about 5' 2" generally and women about 5' 0". As affluence increased and food distribution methods improved, people grew taller again and so as at 2006 the heights are about 5' 9" and about 5' 5". Women have increased in height by about 1.5 inches since 1951 when the UK still had food rationing (not abolished until 1954 - which may surprise a few of you in the USA!).

*************
M*W: Thanks for that bit of information. I recall from high school all the photographs in our history books had persons of history looking so big! I wonder how tall Louis the 1V was, for example, and Marie Antoinette (without the 3 foot wig), and the caesars and Cleopatra? Charlemagne's mother was called "Bertrada," because allegedly, she had big feet! Just how big were they in today's sizes? These are all curiosities to me.