[bena]

It gets super weird, the word we use for "really old", Methuselah, comes from a person mentioned in the bible as living to 969.

Noah was said to have reached over 900 as did Adam, etc.

But it's not like years were unknown to people in antiquity either. But maybe it's just something that we don't have a good translation for and "year" is a close enough guess.

For instance, someone who has lived to 80 has lived about 960 months, which, if you notice, is really close to 969. And people living to their 70s and 80s seems reasonable. Considering that life expectancy in the past typically jumped up once you reached adulthood.