[Ansteorra] Sleeping sitting up vs lying down

[Brandon McDermott]

Could it be selective breeding? The "mini" ice age that was experienced would mean that shorter stockier people would have fared better. Also being slightly overweight was considered a sign of wealth. The shorter a person is, the more likely they are to show an extra pound or 2. But as several people have said, I believe poor nutrition is the most likely culprit. Since the introduction of large quantities of beef into China and Japan after WW2, there has been a growth explosion.....Yao Ming......
  As for the doors in castles... every thing in a castle was done to make siege harder and defense easier. Small single file spiral stairways and doors you must stoop to pass through are evidence of that. A single file spiral stair means 1-2 people can defend the entire stair. You can pass through as the defender very quickly as you are not worried about having your head lobbed off and attacker quickly loose sight of everyone else on the stair in a few short feet. As for the small doors, whether or not you have to stoop a few stalwart people can hold an entire army at bay indefinitely at a single small doorway. Any one defending or attacking Border Keep can attest to that.
   
  Lochlan

Lady Valkyrie <lady-valkyrie at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
  Well, the average hight HAS increased somewhat, by a few inches I think, but not so drastically as to explain shorter beds or low doorways (conserved heat). Better nutrition means greater heights are more likely - however yeah - not the foot or so they seem to be going for LOL

kris

Cisco Cividanes wrote: Actually, if no one minds, I would like to expand this topic by a bit.

I was under the impression that the "they were smaller back then" idea 
had been debunked. Though don't ask me where I got this idea from..

What is the current thinking? Do statistics and physical evidence 
support the idea that the average hight of the "medieval" period 
European was less than that of the their modern counterparts?

Ivo Blackhawk.

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