Human stature is simply defined as the height of a human body in an upright position. The ultimate stature can be obtained from the total addition of vertical length of several bones from the skeleton. Some of these bones are long bones, like femur and tibia; most of the bones that actually contribute to ultimate human stature are irregular in shape, like cranial and vertebral bones. The goal of this study is to measure the trend in average calculated stature of adults during the Predynastic and Dynastic periods in Egypt and then to compare that with the trend in the stature on the territory of contemporary Southern Levant within the context of the changing environment.;This research compares and contrasts the trend in ultimate stature in an environment that is relatively stable represented by Egypt and an environment that is fragile and highly sensitive to climatic change represented by the Southern Levant. The presence of the Nile is reason of the environmental stability in Egypt. In contrast, the Southern Levant is a semi-arid area and its agriculture is totally dependent on rainfall. The topography of the Southern Levant adds a new dimension to the environmental differences between the Southern Levant and Egypt. The variation of the topography of the Southern Levant has made the people's responses to environmental changes different from the responses of the people in Egypt.;Long bone measurements were collected from different resources, including published monographs, articles, reports, and raw data collected by other researchers. Stature was calculated using regression formulas from the measurements of long bones. This study covered the period between the Badarian and the New Kingdom in Egypt and between the Chalcolithic and Iron Age in the Southern Levant.;The results show that stature increased consistently from the Badarian period till the Late Predynastic period in Egypt. This can be explained by the increase in the availability of food and the improvement of health status. Out of the Predynastic periods, Badarians were the lowest in their health status while the people of the Late Predynastic period were the highest. During the Dynastic periods, stature decreased in a relatively continuous pattern from the Early Dynastic period to the New Kingdom. This decrease was associated with the increase in infectious diseases in Egypt. In addition to the increase in population size and density, wars and trade were major contributors for bringing infectious diseases to the country. Also, the expansion of social hierarchy probably played an important role in differential access to food and decreased the health status of lower class people.;Terminal human stature is a product of nutritional adequacy and, to a lesser extent, of disease history. Adequate nutrition helps individuals to reach their genetic growth potential, while poor nutrition slows down growth, preventing people from reaching the genetic growth potential. This relationship between stature and nutrition makes stature a useful tool in measuring the inequality in the forms of nutritional deprivation; average stature will be sensitive not only to the level of income, but also to the distribution of income and the consumption of basic necessities by the poor (Steckel, 1995).;In the Southern Levant, stature fluctuated up and down depending on climatic changes. Stature increased in periods with high precipitation and decreased during the periods of lower precipitation. During Chalcolithic period stature was diminutive. In response to increased precipitation and assumed increase in food production and health status during the Early Bronze Age, stature increased to the highest average of all periods discussed in this study from the Southern Levant for both males and females. Severe drought during the Middle Bronze Age reduced food production and health status and resulted in stature decline. Stature recovered and increased when the precipitation continued its high level during the Iron Age.
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