This surprised me, as I'd heard otherwise. Per https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/how-tall-are-you/, "the average height of people who lived in the 9-11th centuries was comparable to ours today. It then declined slightly during the 12th through 16th centuries, and hit an all-time low during the 17th and 18th centuries – when those doorframes were made."
A 2.5 inch difference in mean heights isn't enormous, and I think doesn't fully explain what the parent comment was surprised by—the merely 5'8" (173 cm) tall doorframes in the Fuggerei. Considering individual variations, something like a quarter of medieval adults should be outright taller than that.
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This surprised me, as I'd heard otherwise. Per https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/how-tall-are-you/, "the average height of people who lived in the 9-11th centuries was comparable to ours today. It then declined slightly during the 12th through 16th centuries, and hit an all-time low during the 17th and 18th centuries – when those doorframes were made."
A 2.5 inch difference in mean heights isn't enormous, and I think doesn't fully explain what the parent comment was surprised by—the merely 5'8" (173 cm) tall doorframes in the Fuggerei. Considering individual variations, something like a quarter of medieval adults should be outright taller than that.