Sinister DNA explanation for barbarians taller than Romans

[caesar novus]

Here is a lecture with stunning info on european pre-history based on genes and analysis of graves, mostly turned up due to recent construction. I will give fractured teaser to motivate you to listen, maybe at bedtime but don't miss some jaw dropping visuals. Feel free to post other sources or your spin on it.

Euro pre-history was more about migration rather than cultural evolution. Some parallels with history of the Americas, where hunters and gatherers were pushed to the fringes by denser groups of efficient agriculturists, in this case from Turkey area. The farmers health suffers a bit from density/diet, and then "the mother of all plagues" repeatedly hit a couple thousand years before the Romans, leading to both death and shortness of frail survivors. Next tall exclusively male warrior herders swoop in from Russian steppes to exterminate ALL Euro short farmer males (eventually even in UK) and enslave or marry short farmer women - gendercide!

He breaks it down by country the present percent of hunter, short farmer, and tall warrior ancestry, but it entails tallness favoring northern europe. So if short men were wiped out, they were replaced by children often inheriting shortness from surviving farmer women. And Roman soldiers found even barbarian women tall because she often inherited height from bloodthirsty dads. There is more to the story which is still being researched, but plenty shockwaves so far!

 

Above a good channel to subscribe to, often giving lectures in English from the Institute of Rome. On a personal note, now I feel a couple DNA tests were vindicated that showed I had at least 1 Sardinian female ancestor among 99% DNA from the most warrior infested country of Europe (a Sardinian once mocked the possibility).

Edited January 4, 2023 by caesar novus

[caldrail]

Height isn't just DNA, it's long term lifestyles too. The Japanese used to be a smaller size but since 1945 and higher protein diets courtesy of the Americans, they're substantially bigger on average.

[guidoLaMoto]

Height/body wieght is a classic example of the interaction of "Nurture & Nature."...With "short genes," no matter how well you eat, you'll still be relatively short. With "tall genes" a high protein/hi calorie diet will result in a taller individual compared to the same genes and a protein/calorie deprived diet. 

Caesar needed to give a Knute Rockne-style pep talk to his legions, scared to death of the upcoming encounter with the larger Germans...Caesar describes the German diet as being one of meat and cheese, the land rarely being cultivatrd by them...as opposed to the Roman diet of wheat supplemented by whatever they could forage when not digging ditches or fighting....We see the same thing comparing American cavalry vs Sioux who stood 6ft tall and ate mostly bison vs 5'7" soldiers eating much more grain/less meat.

Natural selction should favor larger, stronger idividuals when hunting (or combat) was the major considerartion in obtaining food, while smaller stature woulf be favored in a farming culture where strength offers no advantage...."Un-natural' selction, ie- conscious preferences in mate selction, may come into play where abilty to survive is less important.