Farmers' Strong Bones

Farmers in Central Europe went from fit to a little flabby thousands of years ago.

At the dawn of agriculture, male farmers were as fit as elite athletes, but by the Iron Age, agricultural technology was already making them couch potatoes. That's the lesson of work by Alison Macintosh, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. She did laser scans of leg bones recovered from cemeteries and burial sites in Central Europe, dating back more than 6000 years. Her scans captured the strength and shape of bones, which reflect the level and kind of activity. She found that early male farmers were as fit as modern varsity level cross-country runners, while task specialization meant that, by 3000 years ago, average bone strength was no more than modern sedentary men - and it actually declined after that. Interestingly, female bone strength changed much less in that time, suggesting their tasks and work-load changed less.

Related Links

• Research abstract
• University of Cambridge release
• Live Science story