Eurasian Welfare and Stature: Building a Comprehensive Historical Database

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jörg Baten
• Subject Area: Economic and Social History
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 566640904

This project aims to expand the existing human stature dataset across Eurasia, sourced from the Global History of Health (GHH) Project, by incorporating key contextual variables that are essential for understanding the determinants of stature patterns. In particular, existing research on stature patterns in Asia has largely been confined to the twentieth century, creating significant gaps in our historical understanding of these patterns and the socio-economic and environmental factors that influence them. To address these gaps, this project will systematically extract and transform contextual information from original archaeological literature into quantifiable variables such as settlement characteristics, agricultural practices, grave goods, and migration patterns. By integrating these variables with the existing stature data, the project will provide a solid basis of the socio-economic and environmental factors influencing stature over time. The expanded dataset will not only enhance our understanding of welfare trends across both Europe and Asia but will also provide a robust foundation for comparative studies in economic history, health, and human development, offering new insights into how socio-economic and environmental conditions have shaped human stature across different historical periods.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants