Garreth Martin:
> > expectancy of 40 years and 50% of the newborns die before
> > their first year - the remainder of villagers will live to
> > an average of _80_ years.
>Yes, I meant for the individual.
The relevance of which escapes me. Your original comment implied that for a life expectancy of 30 to 50 years, a person of that age was old. The point at which one is old is different from the life expectancy.
>There is a constant attrition for
>adult males in wartfare and for females in childbirth; this still
>means the bulk of warriors will be young adults.
You will still see quite a lot more older men in ancient armies than in modern ones. In Ancient Greece, sixty-year olds still had to serve in the phalanx.
--Peter Metcalfe
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