Secular changes in the height of the inhabitants of Anatolia (Turkey) from the 10th millennium B.C. to the 20th century A.D.

We use human-skeleton samples to estimate the height of adults living in Anatolia during the Neolithic period. We also report the results of surveys taken in the 20th century on the height of the Turkish population. Neolithic and the Chalcolithic (5000-3000 B.C.) male heights are estimated as 170.9 cm and 165.0 cm, respectively. Pronounced increases were observed for both sexes between the Chalcolithic and Iron (1000-580 B.C.) periods and sharp decreases among both males and females in the Hellenistic-Roman period (333 B.C. to 395 A.D.). Moreover, recovery to the Iron Age levels was achieved in the Anatolian Medieval period (395-1453 A.D.) for both sexes (169.4 cm for males and 158.0 cm for females). In 1884 the mean height of men was 162.2 cm and by the beginning of the 1930s it increased to 166.3 cm. In the first nationwide survey in 1937 males mean height was 165.3 cm, and females was 152.3 cm, where today current heights are 174.0 cm and 158.9 cm, respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.