Slitherine

On p11 of Empires of the Dragon the Erlitou Shang troop notes read "The Shang dagger axe (ge) had a dagger axe blade on a metre-long shaft." Just below the troop notes is a photo of Shang Dagger-axe Men with dagger axes that are nearly twice their height. This leads to the inescapable conclusion that 3000 years ago China was populated by people no more than 70cm in height.

Or that figure manufacturers are not very good with weapon lengths - or indeed for that range, body proportions ...

Or the people that wrote the list were wrong.

I'm going for midgets. Save upsetting anyone in power here.

Well, iodine is important for growth and the majority of that in diet comes from seafood. China being large, some people will live far from the sea, so it is possible that they did not get enough to grow much over 2' tall. It would also explain why some of the Terracotta Warriors are smaller than you might expect...

I'm with Phil here...

timmy1 wrote:Well, iodine is important for growth and the majority of that in diet comes from seafood. China being large, some people will live far from the sea, so it is possible that they did not get enough to grow much over 2' tall. It would also explain why some of the Terracotta Warriors are smaller than you might expect...

I'm with Phil here...

alternatively, China is not that far from the home of Homo floresiensis, so it could be a remnant population of so-called hobbits.