Why did our ancestors die so young?

There are huge gaps in history where we will never know exactly what happened and how people lived, but there is one thing that we have found out from countless digs around the world, and that is our ancestors died much younger than we would today. Over the years the average life expectancy has steadily increased and today people are expected to survive for over four times as long as they did during the Stone Age. Heres a quick look at the average life expectancies through the ages.

(The Dolmen was a common way to bury important people during the stone and Bronze ages)

The stone age – 33 to 54

People in the stone age had a surprisingly good life expectancy considering how hard life was and how limited their fruit and vegetables were. This age range is for everyone that dies naturally from old age and doesnt include deaths from illness or physical injury, both of which would be very common during the time. There was little over a 50% that someone would make it to the age of 15, and those that did would risk their lives every time they got an infection or became ill.

Bronze and Iron ages – 45 to 51

The Bronze Age started in Britain around 3,000 BC and the Iron Age ended in 43AD with the Roman invasion. Over this roughly 3000-year period, the British Isles engaged in trade with neighboring nations and increase the variation of crops and animals in the country, leading to a more varied diet and in turn, a longer average life expectancy. One important invention of the Iron Age that made a huge difference was the plow, which before the discovery of iron had to made from bronze which is too weak to plow effectively. Iron plows allowed people to produce enough grain to support bigger populations through the winter and allowed them to store it for consumption all year round.

Roman Britain – Up to 50, averaging around 25

If you were lucky enough to die of old age then you could expect to last for around 50 years, but the most common ages to die between was 20 to 30. All the deaths caused in this ten year range would have been caused by illness or physical injury, but you had a much greater chance of dying before 30 than you did of dying of old age. The violence and slavery in the country can account for most of these deaths, with the native tribes trying to resist a superior enemy and being massacred in the process, yet refusing to surrender, leading to hundreds of years of rebellions and minor conflicts.

Medieval Britain – up to 64, averaging 30

The medieval period benefited from increased trade with neighbouring nations, an advancement in farming techniques and all the crops and animals that the Romans brought to the country that by now, had become widespread and provided great variety to peoples diets. The average life expectancy was only slightly greater than that of the previous period because a normal person couldn’t afford to eat a varied diet, and the only people who actually made it to any age above 60 would either be very rich or very lucky.

Early Colonial era – 60

The name of this period is a loosely fitting term to describe the early days of Europe’s territorial expansion across the world. From the 15th to 17th centuries there were many European nations that claimed land around the world, some of which is still owned by them to this day. If you had a safe job and could afford to eat well then it wouldn’t be unheard of to make it to the age of 60, but for the 99.9% of the population that didn’t have the money for a varied diet, you would be lucky to see 50. The average age to die during this time was between 25 and 35, but mostly due to the very risky nature of the times combined with the large amount of wars each country got involved in.

18th century – 60 to 62.5

Making it to 50 for the average person would be impressive, but even if you had the money to afford good food you still wouldn’t get far past 60. The reason is mostly because of a complete lack of anything that could be considered actual medicine, with illnesses of the age being treated with all kinds of ridiculous methods. For the average person the most likely age to die between was 30 and 35, but this is again due to war and disease.

19th century – 60 to 65

During the 19th century it wouldn’t be unusual to see the common person make it to 40, but the maximum age still wasn’t much better than the previous age. Starting in the 1820s, the industrial revolution took Britain by storm and factories mass-producing goods made the country very rich, but many of these mass-producing techniques were applied to the food industry. The invention of tinned food allowed people to spread out their food groups more efficiently through the year, with summer fruits now preservable in tinned form for use during the winter. The main factor that limited normal people from getting closer to the 60-year mark was still largely social, with good and varied food simply being unaffordable for most.

1900 to present – 40 to 65

During the start of the 19th century, things were still quite hard for the common folk and even though it would be entirely possible to make it to 60 or even older, the average age for deaths was still much lower than what was actually possible. Major conflicts like the first and second world wars saw the average age for males to die plummet to an all-time low, but this does not reflect the average of what it would be possible to live to. One major thing happened during this century that changed everything, and that was the advancement of farm technology, most notably of which was the combine harvester. Because of technology a single farmer would now be able to produce the same amount of crops that would take a few hundred people during the Iron Age, and mass production of food made them more available and affordable for the average person.

The short answer

Yes we do in fact live longer than our ancestors and the reason seems to come down entirely to the factor of health, with the biggest influence being food. During the Iron Age there were no potatoes, onions, lettuce, cucumbers, marrows, leeks, turnips, garlic, figs, cherries, plums, sweet chestnuts and a whole range of other things that people in the British Isles didn’t even know existed, forcing people to live a very limited diet and miss out on essential nutrients their entire lives.

Even after the spread of these new foods the common person simply couldn’t afford them and just went without, because right up until the mid 1900s everything had to be done by hand and anyone without money would grow the easiest and most productive/ preservable foods.