What an ordinary 13th century man looked like, scientists reveal

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What an ordinary 13th century man looked like, scientists reveal
'He was a working class person, perhaps with a specialised trade of some kind'

Ian Johnston Science Correspondent @montaukian 19 hours ago

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/average-13th-century-man-look-like-difference-cambridge-dundee-university-chris-rynn-john-robb-a7640886.html

He looks like a friendly sort of guy, a geography teacher who helps out with the local football team or perhaps a social worker who visits an elderly neighbour for a chat in his spare time.



But, in fact, this is the reconstructed face of a man who died in Cambridge more than 700 years ago.

It is believed he was homeless when he died as his body was found in the grounds of the Hospital of St John the Evangelist, which was a charity that provided refuge for those who had nowhere else to stay, were ill or infirm.

His skeleton also shows signs that he had lived a tough life before his death sometime after the age of 40.

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Excerpt.  More at link above.

[Suppressed]

I knew I recognized him!

[r9etb]

This is what the man would have looked like had his mouth contained teeth.  Maybe it did.... a minor fact that would be interesting to know.

[skeeter]

Looks like my HVAC contractor.

[endicom]

"No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Very interesting but why would we assume this poor gent, a sample of one after all, was normal?

[geronl]

Nah, that dude is a writer and works menial jobs to pay the bills.

[geronl]

This is what the man would have looked like had his mouth contained teeth.  Maybe it did.... a minor fact that would be interesting to know.

could have been covered with sores, missing part of an ear and had discolored skin for all we know.

By the way, 40 was kind of old for those days.

BBC News says:

The average life expectancy for a male child born in the UK between 1276 and 1300 was 31.3 years. In 1998, it is 76. However, by the time the 13th-Century boy had reached 20 he could hope to live to 45, and if he made it to 30 he had a good chance of making it into his fifties.

[Cripplecreek]

Shocking!

Modern man looked like modern man. 

[truth_seeker]

Very interesting but why would we assume this poor gent, a sample of one after all, was normal?

It is an example of contemporary (poor) journalism, judgment and thinking.

The emphasis should be on facial reconstruction technology from a skull, uses for same, possible genetic, regional identity of subject.

The UK is a leader in archaeology, genetics etc. Goods subject, bad headline.

(Dude looks like some in my family, btw.)

[geronl]

"Homeless" in 1300?

Build a shack like everyone else. Problem solved.

[geronl]

1300 or so was just after the Roman Empire contracted and the UK area had hundreds of little kingdoms. Must have been a kind of interesting but scary time.

[catfish1957]

Here is some interesting information.

If you are Anglo in nature (like myself near 100%)......

1250 is about 23 generations ago, assuming conservatively 3 generations per century.

That equals 8,388,608 ancestors at that time.

The entire population of England in 1250 was about 3,000,000.

Obviously there are going to be many duplicates, but all in all the odds are pretty good that if you (1) have Anglo ancestry and(2) This individual had offspring,  then.....   This likely is a direct ancestor.  Very cool.

[Joe Wooten]

1300 or so was just after the Roman Empire contracted and the UK area had hundreds of little kingdoms. Must have been a kind of interesting but scary time.

The western Roman Empire had fallen over 900 years before this guy died. The Eastern (Byzantine) Empire was a shrunken shell of itself after the sacking of Constantinople by 4th Crusade in 1204. The truly dark scary times for Western Europe was from 500-750 AD before Charlemagne. This was the growing time right before the Black Plague hilled off more than 1/3 of the population.

[montanajoe]

Looks pretty well groomed for a guy from the 13th century....

[truth_seeker]

1300 or so was just after the Roman Empire contracted and the UK area had hundreds of little kingdoms. Must have been a kind of interesting but scary time.

Roman powers withdrew from Britain in/about ad 410---quite a long time before 1300 don't you think ??