Age is considered to be life expectancy from the moment of birth, and the measure of measurement is calendar years. In this case, the factors of the development of the organism are not taken into account, and peers may have different psychological and biological ages. Someone "grows up" at the age of 14-16, and for this someone needs to live at least 25-30 years.
Life expectancy of people in different periods of history
Until recently, there was a misconception that before the beginning of industrialization (the end of the 18th century), human life expectancy was only 50-60% of today's indicators. 30-year-old people were considered "old men", and only a few survived to 50 years old - due to difficult working conditions, illness and poverty. In fact, this is not the case, and recent studies show that this difference is greatly exaggerated, and in certain periods of history, a person lived as much (and sometimes longer) than today.
Stone Age
The shortest life expectancy of a Homo sapiens falls on the Stone Age, when he had just begun his journey to civilization, and had not yet had time to create all those inventions that today help us survive and protect ourselves from the negative effects of the environment. But even then, in the most "extreme" conditions, suffering from hunger, cold and disease, a person could live up to 40 years and older, and this is evidenced by archaeological excavations in the sites of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons.
Why is the average age of a person in the Stone Age officially only 20 years old? The point is in the statistics, which included infant mortality. So, less than half of all children born lived to 5 years old, but after passing this age mark, a person could well live up to 30, and up to 40 years, and even up to 50. The problem was that as you get older, it became more and more difficult to get yourself food, and people more often died not from old age, but from hunger and disease.
Antiquity
In ancient times, the average life expectancy was 30 years, but again this is nothing more than "the average temperature in the hospital." Such a small average figure is explained by high infant mortality, which was about 30%. But if the child lived to be 10-12 years old, he had every chance to die an old man. For example, in ancient Rome, the draft age for men was 18-60 years old, which means that 60-year-old warriors were quite combat-ready, could hold a shield and a sword in their hands, and make long marches on foot.
Among the wealthy classes, life expectancy was even higher. Thus, studies show that Pharaoh Neferkare Pepi II passed away at 68 years old, and Ramesses II - at 90 years old. Pythagoras died at the age of 75, Hippocrates at 90, and Xenophanes of Colophon at 95.
Middle Ages
The average age of elites and ordinary inhabitants differed in different periods of the Middle Ages. Among the former, there were more long-livers due to more comfortable living conditions, a nutritious diet and access to medicine. Commoners, on average, died 10-15 years earlier than the rich. Thus, studies show that in England of the 13th century, 65% of the population lived to the age of 10, 55% to 30, 30% to 50, and 7% to 70-75. If we remove the high infant mortality, then these are not such bad indicators, quite comparable with many modern countries.
The lowest life expectancy in the Middle Ages falls on the XIV century, when the plague came to Europe. Compared with the 13th century, when most aristocrats lived to 64 years old, in the 14th century this figure decreased to 45 years. But already in the XV century, the indicators returned to the original. Commoners lived much less - due to rampant unsanitary conditions, poverty and hard physical labor.
Interesting facts
- Budhia Singh became the youngest marathon runner in the world at the age of 3.
- Michael Kearney became the youngest graduate of the university, having received a bachelor's degree from the University of South Alabama at the age of 10.
- Mum-Zi, a 17-year-old girl from Nigeria, became the youngest grandmother in the world. At the age of 8, she gave birth to a daughter, and she, in turn, became a mother at 8.5 years old.
- Over the past 100 years, puberty has decreased by 2 years for both boys and girls.
- The youngest dollar billionaire in 2007 was 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the social network Facebook.
- In the body of an adult, there are about 100 trillion (10 to the 14th power) cells, of which about 100 billion die every day, being replaced by new ones. After 7-10 years, not a single “old” cell remains in our body, and during this time they are completely “renewed”.
Summarizing, we can say that the actual age is not so important, especially in the 21st century, when humanity has solved all the main problems related to food, accommodation, hygiene, and medicine. Infant mortality in civilized countries today does not exceed 1-2%, and everyone has a chance to live to old age, maintaining good spirits and common sense.
