ABSTRACT
Many populations throughout the world have experienced a dramatic increase in the average height of at least the males within the last 150 years. In Denmark average male height has increased from 1.66 m in 1852-6 to 1.80 m in the 1980s. Except for the Mesolithic and the early and middle Neolithic, Denmark has never been reported to have a population as short as the 1.66 m derived from skeletal measurements. Compared with present-day Denmark medieval Denmark was a relatively large country in northern Europe, consisting also of Skane, Halland, and Blekinge, which are now part of Sweden, and of south Slesvig, which is now in the Federal Republic of Germany. The average difference between lengths of the femur from Jutland and Scania, between urban and rural populations, and between the upper and lower social groups in the Loddekopinge cemetery by sex.
