It has become an article of faith among, well, basically everyone, that our ancestors lived short, brutal lives. What are they touting as the average lifespan these days – 35 years old or so? I’ve heard anything between 25 and 40 years. The common counter is that infant mortality rates were higher than they are today, thus skewing the average. It’s also often pointed out that a relatively benign accident or illness by today’s standards – a broken arm, a rolled ankle, or a minor infection – could have prematurely ended Grok’s life. And that these cases say nothing about Grok’s potential to live 70+ years. The “short and brutal” meme has wedged itself in the public psyche, and it’s going to take a lot to extract it from its seemingly intractable position.
I’m going to riff a bit on something I’ve been thinking about regarding ancient human bones. This isn’t an official stance or anything; I’m just thinking out loud. Let me know what you think in the comment board.
Now, bones are notoriously confusing, especially when we’re trying to figure out the age of the individual who died. We learn a lot from studying them, but only to a point. Just how do forensic anthropologists determine the age of death of a particular skeleton’s former owner?
For skeletons of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults, fossil analysis yields accurate age of death estimates. Human growth is fairly reliable for a while, and it’s easy enough to tell a kid apart from a really short adult, but things get tough once people stop growing and become adults. In fact, anthropologists have typically had trouble accurately determining the precise age of death for older adult remains. They’ll even tell you this. They can’t rely on the same methods and must turn to others.
One method is to measure bone mineral density, especially of the femur. It’s a general rule that bone density decreases with age. It’s a pretty accurate method for determining the age of death in modern people, but I’m skeptical of its utility when dealing with the bones of our ancestors. Even its proponents admit that while general age and sex-related trends can be observed for bone loss, there have been cases of “young adult” bone density patterns in skeletons of aged individuals. That is, bone density degradation is not linear, and it’s not set in stone. Instead, it depends on “numerous genetic, environmental, and cultural factors.” Old guys can have young guy bones, but it’s rare. Most modern old guys have old guy bones.
What kind of environmental factors can influence bone density – can give old guys young bones? Remember, environmental factors include anything that the organism interacts with, and as far as bone health, diet, activity level, and micronutrient intake are some of the big ones.
Strength training builds muscles, but it also builds bones. Like muscles, bones are reactive things that respond to stress. When you lift heavy things, heavy enough to “threaten” your body, you are sending the message that the affected lean tissue must adapt. Muscles adapt by adding fibers; bones adapt by ossifying. Today’s sedentary populations are plagued with osteoporosis, partly because of nutritional deficiencies, but also because they are sedentary. Their bones, by and large, aren’t getting the stimulus required to maintain density. They don’t have to hunt, kill, and carry their food, nor do they have to build their domiciles. Heck, it isn’t even necessary to leave the house. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors, on the other hand, worked for their livelihoods. They were active by necessity; they lifted heavy things because their lives depended on it. Whose bones do you think would receive the stimulus necessary for maintaining density – the sedentary sitters or the active hunters?
If anthropologists have included fossil bone density as a factor in their determination of age of death, I think the matter of vitamin D, magnesium, and resistance “training” (obviously, they weren’t lifting barbells in the Paleolithic, but they were certainly lifting heavy things, arguably at a greater intensity than many modern lifters) throws the popular notion of hunter gatherer’s lives being short and brutal into question. Were they shorter than ours? Yeah, on average. I’m not tossing everything out entirely. I’m just questioning whether modern bone density data are accurate reference points for analyzing the age of death of Paleolithic remains. It might be more accurate to simply say, “We don’t exactly know,” instead of tossing out the “cavemen died at 30!” knee-jerk response.
What if the dense bones of what appear to have been a robust 30-year old hunter were actually bones of an incredibly capable 60-year old?
Next time, I’ll discuss a paper that takes an in-depth look at hunter-gatherer ages. The results might pleasantly surprise you.
Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending three decades researching and educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.