Pre-glacial maximum Upper Palaeolithic males (before 16,000 BC) were tall and slim (mean height 179 cm, estimated average body weight 67 kg), while the females were comparably small and robust (mean height 158 cm, estimated average body weight 54 kg).
Based on 45 long bones from maximally 14 males and 7 females, Neanderthals' height averages between 164 and 168 (males) resp. 152 to 156 cm (females).
10,000 years ago: European males – 162.5cm (5 ft 4 inches). A dramatic reduction in the size of humans occurred at this time. Many scientists think that this reduction was influenced by global climatic change and the adoption of agriculture.
According to the findings in the Royal Society Open Science journal, early humans ranged from the broad, gorilla-like paranthropus to the thinner australopithecus afarensis. The hominins from four million year ago weighed 25kg on average and stood just over 4ft tall.
People in the Mesolithic period were shorter than today. A woman's average height was 154 cm and a man's 166 cm. On average people lived to the age of 35, and were more well built than today.
The average height of Vikings as found by researchers and scholars, varied depending on a number of factors, including their age and gender. Typically, the average male Viking would usually be between 5 foot 7 and 5 foot 9, while the average female would be between 5 foot 1 and 5 foot 3.
In the prehistoric populations, the maximum height for men was 165 to 170 cm, while women topped out at 160 cm. Today, by comparison, men in England have an average height of around 175 cm, while for women it is about 162 cm.
The "little giant," a 1.93-meter tall human skeleton, was recently identified by experts at China's Archaeology Academy as the tallest prehistoric man ever found.
God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. A land of giants, the Netherlands is the loftiest nation on Earth: the average height of a Dutch man is 182.5cm; a Dutch woman 168.7cm. By comparison their American counterparts measure 177.1cm and 163.5cm respectively.
While cavemen didn't have the strength of an Olympic weightlifter, as they could lift larger loads comparatively, cavemen had greater overall strength and endurance because of their lifestyle”.
First, the observed increase in height has not been continuous since the dawn of man; it began sometime around the middle of the nineteenth century. In fact, examinations of skeletons show no significant differences in height from the stone age through the early 1800s.
Pre-glacial maximum Upper Palaeolithic males (before 16,000 BC) were tall and slim (mean height 179 cm, estimated average body weight 67 kg), while the females were comparably small and robust (mean height 158 cm, estimated average body weight 54 kg).
Adults grew to about 1.50-1.75m tall and weighed about 64-82kg. Early Neanderthals were taller on average than later Neanderthals, but their weight was about the same.
PALEOLITHIC STAGE ENCOUNTERS
Life expectancy was approximately 33 years of age.
Hominins from four million years ago weighed an average of 25kg and stood between 125cm and 130cm tall. The appearance of our own species family, Homo, around 2.2-1.9 million years ago saw a surge in both height (20cm) and weight (15-20kg).
Body Size Not a Factor in Human Origins
A new analysis of the body size of early humans and our relatives suggests that the first members of the genus Homo—which includes Homo sapiens—were not larger than earlier hominin species.
With fewer Neanderthals breeding with each other and group sizes already small and scattered due to the environment, hybridisation outside of Neanderthal family groups could have helped push the species into decline.
Finding Ötzi the Iceman
Because his body was found on the east ridge of the Fineilspitze in the Ötzal Alps at an elevation of 10,530 feet, this Copper Age Homo tyrolensis is commonly known as Ötzi, or Ötzi the Iceman. Ötzi is the oldest man ever found intact.
Cheddar Man lived around 10,000 years ago and is the oldest almost complete skeleton of our species, Homo sapiens, ever found in Britain. Research into ancient DNA extracted from the skeleton has helped scientists to build a portrait of Cheddar Man and his life in Mesolithic Britain.
Dutch people are the world's tallest, with an average height of 175.62cm (5 feet 7.96 inches.) Dutch men are an average 182.53cm (5 feet 11.86 inches) tall.
Remember the average life for a man in the Ancient Rome's times was about 40… Even the average height was shorter than today's Romans: around 5'5”!
Broadly speaking, evolution simply means the gradual change in the genetics of a population over time. From that standpoint, human beings are constantly evolving and will continue to do so long as we continue to successfully reproduce.
Humans looked essentially the same as they do today 10,000 years ago, with minor differences in height and build due to differences in diet and lifestyle. But in the next 10 millennia, we may well have refined genetic 'editing' techniques to allow our children to all be born beautiful and healthy.