Did Ancient People Really Die Young?
It's common to hear that modern medicine is making us live considerably longer than those who lived before 1900. However, there's some evidence that the lifespans of pre-modern people were not all that different from our own.
The CIA World Factbook reported in 2013 that the life expectancy of a person born in the United States was 78.6 years and 81.5 years in Canada. [1] However, the Encyclopedia of Britannica reported that the average life expectancy in Classical Greece was a mere 28 years. [2]
The problem with modern claims about extraordinary differences between ancient and modern life spans is that they're directly challenged by numerous primary sources which consistently report an average life spanning 60 to 80 years.
The Biblical Psalter was written and compiled before Christ's birth. [3] In Psalm 90, the author wrote: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." According to the Hebrew's ancient song book, the average life expectancy was somewhere between 70 and 80 years.
The Chinese writer Chuang-tzu lived from about 367 BC to 286 BC (81 years). [4] In his writings, the character Chieh told a fictional Confucius that "some few may live to eighty years, some fewer to a hundred; but one who lives till sixty has still not died young." [5] For Chieh, 60 years old wasn't that old, and 80 to 100 had been generally observed. This statement seems incredible if we accept that the average person during this time was only living to 28.
The average ages recorded by the Bible and Chuang-tzu seem representative of those experienced throughout human history. The Greek philosopher Socrates lived to age 70 before being killed. [6] The Roman poet Virgil lived to 89. [7] The apostle Paul lived a miserably hard life before being martyred at the age of 65. [8] Saint Augustine lived to 65. [9] Isaac Newton, died in 1727 at age 84. [10] George Washington was 67 before dying of his physician's ill-conceived medical procedures. Washington was apparently so healthy at 67 that he survived in a conscious state for several days after doctors drained an astounding 40% of his blood. [11]
Certain periods of history have, no doubt, lent themselves to lower life expectancies due to various factors including infant mortality, plague, or excessive war. However, in periods of relative health and civility, life expectancy beyond infanthood doesn't seem to have been drastically different than what we experience today.
NOTES
[1] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html / Country Comparison: Life Expectancy At Birth / Accessed: July 27, 2013
[2] Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "mortality," accessed July 27, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/393100/mortality.
[3] The Date Of The Psalms, Charles Lee Feinberg, TH.D., PH.D., Copyright © 1947 by Dallas Theological Seminary. Accessed July 27, 2013
[4] Masers of the Orient, Edited: G. L. Anderson, W.W. Norton & Company Inc. New York, 1961. Read July 27 th 2013.
[5] Three Ways of Thought in Anciant China, Arthur Waley, Copyright 1939, Macmillion Company, New York.
[6] Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Plato," accessed July 27, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/464109/Plato.
[7] Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Virgil," accessed July 27, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/629832/Virgil.
[8] Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Saint Paul, the Apostle," accessed July 27, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/447019/Saint-Paul-the-Apostle.
[9] Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Saint Augustine," accessed July 27, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/42902/Saint-Augustine.
[10] Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Sir Isaac Newton," accessed July 27, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/413189/Sir-Isaac-Newton.
[11] “What Killed George Washington?” PastMedicalHistory.co.uk/what-killed-geoge-washington/