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- Title
MILITARY STATURE VARIATION DURING THE 19TH CENTURY: NAPOLEONIC VERSUS GERMAN SOLDIERS OF WORLD WAR.
- Authors
Jankauskas, Rimantas; Palubeckaite-Miliauskiene, Žydrūne; Barkus, Arūnas; Urbanavičius, Agnius
- Abstract
As Europe experienced industrial transition in the 19th century, it had a profound impact on the standards of living and it was reflected in the marked changes of demographic indices. One could expect certain reflections in the stature of military conscripts as well. Well-documented skeletal samples could serve as an independent source to validate this hypothesis. The aim of this study was to compare the stature variation of soldiers originating mostly from Western and Central Europe who died due to various causes in Lithuania in 1812 and in 1915. The first skeletal sample was from the mass grave excavated in Vilnius in 2002; these were the soldiers of the Napoleonic Great Army which died in December 1812 during disastrous retreat from Moscow. The Great Army consisted of recruits from almost all Western and Central Europe. The second sample consisted of the remains of the German soldiers who died in the field hospital in 1915-1917 and were exhumed for reburial in 2005. Sex and age estimation was performed using conventional morphological criteria. The stature of individuals was estimated according to the measurements of long bones (humerus and femur) using three methods -- Trotter and Gleser (1958), Olivier et al. (1978) and Nainys (1972). In total, sample 1 consisted of 193, sample 2-770 male skeletons. No statistically significant differences between the two samples were found: the estimated stature (and min.-max. range) of the total sample 1 was, according to the three above listed methods, 171.6 (156.6-185.2), 171.0 (155.3-183.2) and 169.1 (155.3-181.5) cm, sample 2 - 171.4 (155.4-188.8), 169.5 (153.3-187.4), and 168.3 (153.8-185.7) cm, correspondingly. The comparison of the stature differences between age groups in both samples revealed only statistically insignificant tendencies (more pronounced in the Napoleonic sample) -- the youngest (up to 20 years) and the oldest (over 40 years) tended to be taller. If methodological errors are excluded, we conclude that such an absence of stature differences between the males born at the end of the 18th and the 19th century suggests the absence of the significant impact of socioeconomic changes during the century. Minor age-related stature fluctuations probably reflect selective recruitment (conscription of only the most fit teenagers) and social differences (officers originating from higher social strata in the oldest group).
- Subjects
EUROPE; STATURE; MILITARY personnel; NAPOLEONIC Wars, 1800-1815; WORLD War I
- Publication
Papers on Anthropology, 2007, Vol 16, p122
- ISSN
1406-0140
- Publication type
Article