Redefining knowledge of elderly people throughout history

People sometimes think that in those days if you lived to 40 that was about as good as it got. But that's not true. An archaeologist from The Australian National University (ANU) is set to redefine what we know about elderly people in cultures throughout history, and dispel the myth that most people didn't live much past 40 prior to modern medicine. Christine Cave, a PhD Scholar with the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology, has developed a new method for determining the age-of-death for skeletal remains based on how worn the teeth are. Using her method, which she developed by analysing the wear on teeth and comparing with living populations of comparable cultures, she examined the skeletal remains of three Anglo-Saxon English cemeteries for people buried between the years 475 and 625. Her research determined that it was not uncommon for people to live to old age. "People sometimes think that in those days if you lived to 40 that was about as good as it got.