MILITARY STATURE VARIATION DURING THE 19TH CENTURY: NAPOLEONIC VERSUS GERMAN SOLDIERS OF WORLD WAR 1
Rimantas Jankauskas
ABSTRACT As Europe experienced industrial transition in the 19th century, it had a profound impact on the standards of living and it was reflected in the marked changes of demographic indices. One could expect certain reflections in the stature of military conscripts as well. Well-documented skeletal samples ,could serve as an independent source to validate this hypothesis. The aim of this study was to compare the stature variation of soldiers originating mostly from Western and Central Europe who died due to various causes in Lithuania in 1812 and in 1915. The first skeletal sample was from the mass grave excavated in Vilnius in 2002; these were the soldiers of the Napoleonic Great Army which died in December 1812 during disastrous retreat from Moscow. The Great Army consisted of recruits from almost all Western and Central Europe. The second sample consisted of the remains of the German soldiers who died in the field hospital in 1915–1917 and were exhumed for reburial in 2005. Sex and age estimation was performed using conventional morphological criteria. The stature of individuals was estimated according to the measurements of long bones (humerus and femur) using three methods – Trotter and Gleser (1958), Olivier et al. (1978) and Nainys (1972).