In past societies, most common age of death was around 70, suggests study

[rangerrebew]

Winter 2018, Cover Stories, Daily News
In past societies, most common age of death was around 70, suggests study

Fri, Jan 05, 2018
 

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY—An archaeologist from The Australian National University (ANU) is set to redefine what we know about elderly people in cultures throughout history, and dispel the myth that most people didn't live much past 40 prior to modern medicine.

Christine Cave, a PhD Scholar with the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology, has developed a new method for determining the age-of-death for skeletal remains based on how worn the teeth are.

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/winter-2018/article/in-past-societies-most-common-age-of-death-was-around-70-suggests-study

[Free Vulcan]

I've done my genealogy back for centuries thanks to others that have done theirs and posted to the internet. Most of my ancestors lived 40-80 years with 60 being pretty common. Within the last couple hundred years or so it's trended upward toward the 80-100 y/o range.

Generally if you could make it past the childhood diseases and had a relatively middle class life for the times, 70 wasn't unreasonable.

[Sanguine]

"People sometimes think that in those days if you lived to 40 that was about as good as it got. But that's not true.

"For people living traditional lives without modern medicine or markets the most common age of death is about 70, and that is remarkably similar across all different cultures."

Psalm 90:10   

As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.

Even if you're not a believer, there is a lot of wisdom there.

[Texas Yellow Rose]

My mother (born 1926) always told me "people used to die young because they didn't have medicines"  By the time 1958 rolled around I figured that was an exaggeration, because of all the "old" people I met with my Great Aunts. 

Fast forward 20 years, when I began collecting the information for my genealogy, and I learned it was not true in our family.  My biggest shock was finding my 5th great grandmother living in the 1850 census at the age of 100.  Generations after her had children who lived to 85, 91, 80.  The same was true on a couple of other lines.

[Sanguine]

My mother (born 1926) always told me "people used to die young because they didn't have medicines"  ...

That's true.  But, if they made it into adulthood, they had an excellent chance of dying old.

[Fishrrman]

"Three score and ten..."

Seems like I've heard that before...