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Franks, Arabs and others always commented how tall and beautiful Vikings/Norsemen were. They were on average about 170 - 174 cm, shorter than today.
by nabla9 2y ago
Franks, Arabs and others always commented how tall and beautiful Vikings/Norsemen were. They were on average about 170 - 174 cm, shorter than today.
- A_D_E_P_T 2y agoYeah, that's not far from today's 50th percentile height in the US Army, which is 175.5cm. Our Ancient Greek would be in the second percentile. This has serious implications for hand breadth and how they might use a sword with a grip not far from 3" long. See: https://ibb.co/LRhMbVW https://ibb.co/LRhMbVW (From "2012 Anthropometric Survey of US Army Personnel")
- Tor3 2y agoOne data sample - the Norse settlements in Greenland: Average for men was 171cm, but many were 184-185 cm (wikipedia). Women's average height was 156 cm.
- inglor_cz 2y agoSeveral years ago, I visited Mikulčice, where the former capital of Great Moravia (9th century AD) was excavated. In the museum, most of the skeletons were < 170 cm. One, though, stood out at 183 cm. According to DNA, this skeleton belonged to a Nordic man.