| So, one example. If you translate the following book into English using some online service, ages of the skeletons excavated near the Prague Castle are being discussed on pages 41 and 42 https://www.arup.cas.cz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/CP_12_2_2... Of 95 adult people buried there, three men were in the category senilis (over 60). Women could obviously live longer, as 16 of them were in the category senilis (quite a lot! 29 per cent of all adult women in fact), but there was also a visible cluster of female dead aged 20-30, which probably indicates the danger of dying at childbirth or soon after. The people buried at Lumbe's Gardens were probably members of the "better off" part of the society. It is located right next to the seat of the Bohemian King (then, Prince), after all. So this is how age profiles looked like in the "upper middle strata" of the medieval Czech society around year 1000 or so. Still pretty bad, by current standards. Quite a lot of deaths in the < 35 age bracket. ================================================== Incidentally, I just read an article about famous Czech personalities of the 19th century. Many were rather short-lived as well: https://www.idnes.cz/xman/styl/narodni-obrozeni-historie-ces... Karel Hynek Mácha, the national Romantic poet, died in 1836 at 26 years of age, either pneumonia or cholera František Ladislav Čelakovský, translator, died in 1852 at 53 years of age. Václav Matěj Kramerius, publisher, died in 1808 at 55 years of age. Jindřich Fügner, sportsman, died in 1865 at 43 years of age, blood poisoning. Miroslav Tyrš, his friend, died in 1884 at 52 years of age, drowning, possibly suicide. Josef Mánes, painter, died in 1871 at 51 years of age, syphilis. Bedřich Smetana, composer, died in 1884 at 60 years of age, syphilis. Božena Němcová, writer, died in 1862 at 41 years of age, tuberculosis. Karel Havlíček Borovský, journalist, died in 1856 at 34 years of age, tuberculosis. Josef Kajetán Tyl, director and theatrist, died in 1856 at 48 years of age, probably tuberculosis. These are about the most famous Czech cultural icons of the 19th century and most of them didn't even see their 60th birthday. Smetana did (barely), but he was broken by so many diseases that he might not have been aware of it anymore. |