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Archaeologists Keep Finding Massive Shoes at an Ancient Roman Fort—and They Have No Idea Why They're So Big (www.smithsonianmag.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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[–] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They also lived shorter on average. Some of them still reached a very old age. The average really doesn‘t tell us that much about the extremes that existed.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That's because of high infant/childhood mortality rates skewing the average. If you take away anyone who died before age 5, the average age shoots up to like 70+ in most places. Not too different from today.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Yes, I know. The problem is that most people see an average stat and think it‘s a universal law. That goes for life expectancy, height and even GDP per capita among other things. In reality no one is perfectly average and extremes exist everywhere.

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