Bret Devereaux

I actually question the idea that people in the ancient world were generally more fit than a reasonably active modern person. In most cases, higher levels of physical activity are offset by lower levels of nutrition.

I wonder how that question can be definitively answered. I bet @FlintDibble knows something about bone analysis.

Hm I'm not enough of a human bone specialist to answer this from scientific perspective I know there's ancient historians debating feasibility of spectacular athletic feats beyond what we can do today. Maybe check authors like Stephen Miller, Paul Christenson and/or Donald Kyle

Wrt Bret's point abt athleticism offset by poor nutrition I don't buy that. If discussing hoplites & athletes, these were mostly citizens who had adequate calories and protein Classical skeletal analyses show high animal protein consumption and few periods of nutritional stress

Speaking from the perspective of someone who has used ancient farming methods to include working oxen, that "reasonably" in the description of the modern person is doing a LOT of work. Most moderns would struggle to complete ancient farming tasks.

Ox yokes are heavy, so just getting your team ready to go is going to be a struggle. But then keeping the point of an ard driven into soil is also a lot of dang work. Using a pitchfork to stack hay is a lot of dang work. Hoeing a field by hand, etc etc.

So I guess the question is what we're defining as a "reasonably fit" modern person, cause I don't actually let John Q Public help yoke oxen at demos, he's likely to overestimate his ability to lift and hold the yoke while getting the bows in place and drop it.

Problem: modern subsistence farmers do tend to suffer regular bouts of malnutrition which often leaves lasting negative health effects (esp. in childhood). Demographically, we see evidence for the same (via seasonal mortality) among ancient subsistence farmers.