For centuries, women have consistently outlived men, a trend consistent across various cultures. But in the cramped and unforgiving streets of Medieval England, this biological edge vanished. A new study reveals that during this period, men and women had almost identical life expectancies—an anomaly in human history.
The findings challenge long-held assumptions and offer a glimpse into a society shaped by disease, famine, and stark inequalities. Life expectancy hovered around a meager 32 years, with some reaching their 40s or 50s. Few lived into old age. Yet, even in such a brutal era, one might have expected women to outlast men. So why didn’t they?
A Hidden History Unearthed
The study, led by Samantha Yaussy and her team, leverages bioarchaeology to explore health disparities in medieval London. Using bones from local cemeteries, researchers examined biomarkers like linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), osteoarthritis (OA), and periosteal new bone formation (PNBF). These markers, etched into skeletons by life’s hardships, offer clues about the physical stress endured by these people while they were still alive.
The bones told a grim story of lives marked by hardship, according to Yaussy, an anthropologist at James Madison University.
“Lesions on the skeleton would have recorded stressful health events,” she told Discover Magazine. These markers often emerged during childhood due to past plagues, famines, or severe illnesses. Grooves etched into teeth, for example, indicated periods when the body halted enamel production due to malnutrition or disease.
Other skeletal clues revealed trauma from violent encounters, infections, or accidents. These physical signs, Yaussy explains, served as a “permanent record” of a person’s frailty in life. The team pieced together these indicators to infer not just how people lived but also their likelihood of survival in a world devoid of modern medicine.
The Role of Patriarchy in Medieval Mortality
The study challenges modern assumptions about gender and health in historical populations. Unlike today’s “male-female morbidity-mortality paradox,” where women tend to live longer despite higher morbidity, medieval London showed no significant differences between the sexes in terms of frailty or resilience. This could reflect societal structures where men benefitted from “preferential cultural buffering,” meaning men might have benefitted from societal privileges in areas like nutrition, labor conditions, or access to resources.
“It’s cultural,” says Sharon DeWitte, a biological anthropologist at the University of Colorado Boulder and co-author of the study. “This shapes who gets certain foods and how resources are spread among children at crucial points in their development.”
In a patriarchal society that prioritized male heirs, women often found themselves at a disadvantage.
This disparity extended beyond nutrition. Women were more likely to care for the sick, exposing them to communicable diseases. They were also less likely to receive even the rudimentary medical care available at the time.
“These are reasonable inferences to make based on what we know about that societal structure,” DeWitte adds.
The Skeletal Puzzle: What Bones Can—and Can’t—Tell Us
Centuries after their deaths, the skeletons of medieval Londoners hold clues to their lives—but they don’t tell straightforward stories. In fact, interpreting these bones requires navigating what researchers call the osteological paradox, a term that captures the puzzling contradictions of studying ancient health through skeletal remains.
At first glance, skeletons with visible signs of stress—like lesions or deformed bones—might seem to belong to the sickest individuals. But often, the opposite is true. These markers typically take time to form, meaning the individuals who bear them survived long enough to endure and recover from severe hardships. In contrast, those who died quickly, from acute illnesses or harsh conditions, may leave behind skeletons that appear deceptively “healthy.”
This paradox came into sharp focus in this study on medieval London cemeteries. The researchers’ findings flipped conventional assumptions:
Skeletons with healed PNBF, which reflects recovery from past trauma, often belonged to individuals who lived longer, showing resilience in the face of adversity. On the other hand, markers like short femoral lengths or active PNBF—evidence of ongoing stress at the time of death—were strongly tied to shorter lifespans.
To make sense of these contradictions, the team used an advanced statistical model to untangle the dual roles of frailty and resilience. Frailty, marked by conditions like stunted bone growth, signaled vulnerability and increased mortality risk. Resilience, reflected in healed lesions, was seen as a sign of strength required to overcome life’s challenges.
Overall, the study’s revelations shed light on how cultural norms can shape life expectancy in profound ways. While today’s women typically live six years longer than men in the U.S., the Medieval period offers a stark reminder of how societal inequalities can erase even biological advantages.
The findings were reported in the journal Science Advances.
