Variazioni staturali in Sardegna dal Neolitico al XX secolo

This study deals with mean height values of Sardinian population from the Neolithic to the twentieth century. Height evaluations from Sardinian skeleton series have been made by Manouvrier method. Both sexes show substantially the same trend. In fact, the averages increase from the Middle Neolithic until Eneolithic. In the Nuragic period the mean height for males is equal to that of Eneolithic, while for females the mean height of the Nuragic period is 13 mm higher than the Eneolithic. The mean height from the Nuragic until the period between the late sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century decrease in both males and females. From the first half of the twentieth century we can see a reversal of the decrease. In fact, the mean height of both sexes, is higher than those of previous periods, but still lower than those of the Nuragic period. It is to be noted that only with individuals born in the second half of the twentieth century the mean height is higher than those of the same sex belonging to the Nuragic period.