If somebody from the 15th Century was stood in front of you, wearing jeans and a top, do you think you’d be able to tell they were from a different era?!

[Parrotanne]

I’m bored! I know that people are said to have become taller as the centuries pass but I wondered if there would be any other discernible differences. Differences that would be obvious just by looking - the 15th C speech would most likely be a bit of a clue!

So if, for instance, 15th C person was stood in front of you at the bus stop, dressed in Boden/Primark/Next/Any High Street Shop would you realise something was a bit different?!

How to make chamber lye to wash your clothes, assuming you can afford to burn wood to heat the water.

there's no safe drinking water, after all, to wash your hands in.

Of course there was safe drinking water! Cities actually spent money on bringing in clean water and cups would be hung up beside springs and wells so that people passing could get a drink. They had wells and streams, natural springs, etc and there was nowhere near as much pollution as there is now. People weren't thick, for example they knew to take water up-river from where the tanner was based, and while there were outbreaks of water based diseases because there wasn't the same filtration processes we have now, it certainly wasn't wall to wall cholera and they didn't always drink beer and wine because it was safer (for the most part they drank it for the same reasons we do now - the taste, to get drunk, to be socialable, to be a good host to guests, etc).

I love this idea as I often do the reverse - look at modern people and think when could they have lived in the past. For instance, with achange of clothes, George Osborne would walk into a Regency ball without anyone batting an eyelid.

I agree that their teeth would not have been as bad as we imagine because very few people would have had sugar until the 19th. I went to an exhibition about the Egyptians and they had problems with broken teeth because the hand ground grains were a lot more chunky than we are used to.

It's true that we are taller today but average height and physical disabilities were affected by the terrible effects of working in mines and factories etc after the Industrial Revolution. Going back further, the archers in the monarch's army were about 1.9 metres (6' 3"). Of course they were the elite but they can calculate this from skeletons and the size of their longbows.

When you see 1930s stars like Katherine Hepburn in elegant clothes, she looks as if she could walk around today and not stand out. I think the hair would be the biggest giveaway.

In answer to the question, the hair would be the biggest giveaway for me. Lots of grey and no straighteners for the women and longer hair and beards/moustaches for the men!

Depends what job they had, too, what they smelled like. Dog feces was useful to tan leather hides, so imagine our time travellers had a job collecting dog muck and then mixing hides in it all day.

They wouldn't be that much shorter either, average height was 5'8 and today its 5'9 so not that much of an increase. Heights fell from sort of the middle 17th century because of changes in nutrition, etc before gradually climbing back up again but 14th century wasn't much different to now height-wise.

Alan Titchmarsh as a Neanderthal. Towards the end of the episode.

I can thoroughly recommend the "Time Travellers Guide" books by Ian Mortimer www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006N5AQIW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21 There is one on Medieval, Elizabethan, Restoration and Regency periods - fascinating snippets about everyday life

nails with black stuff in it

Thank you for the replies, this is a really interesting discussion! I did see some YouTube videos a while back where famous historical figures had been animated but I can’t find it now (I probably dreamt it!).

@LonstantonSpiceMuseum thank you for that link, it looks fascinating!

Oh - and thanks for all the other book articles and recommendations too :)

@SquirrelFan I'm glad its not just me who spends too much time thinking these things!

I also love thinking about it but not think I could deal with it myself. Not just the disease and discomfort but just how much harder life was. No labour saving devices (unless you were rich enough for servants), hard labouring if you were very poor, the mental hardship of high infant and maternal mortality.

I love all the books that go into the every day detail especially the Ruth Goodman book linked above (because she had actually done living as a Tudor). I have several of the Time travellers Guide to (time period) books, and various books of medieval/Tudor recipes and Tudor clothing patterns (not that I cook or see that well!)

If they were poor, yes. Look at paintings of peasants of the time, their lives were etched on their faces. Wealthy, maybe not so easy.

I guess it depends what you call safe -- little of their water would pass modern safety standards, but by the time you were 5yo, you had been exposed to so then have immunity or died, of most germs in your local water. If you & most people never travelled outside birth area, then you'd settle into finding your local water perfectly & permanently safe.

This is interesting how water quality safety was handled in London. Out in the countryside there was plenty of Giardia I'm sure.

There would be no fake orange tan, straightened hair or slug eyebrows. More likely pale with curly hair and natural brows (at least if working class)

No painkillers. No tea! 😱

Also depends a lot on what class they were from, a wealthy person would probably be a lot better groomed, healthier and so on.

@Parrotanne

Thank you for the replies, this is a really interesting discussion! I did see some YouTube videos a while back where famous historical figures had been animated but I can’t find it now (I probably dreamt it!).

@LonstantonSpiceMuseum thank you for that link, it looks fascinating!

I also saw those video! They were a bit weird...

The Marina Amal colorisations (like the Civil War photo) do a great job of making you realise past generations are "real people" - colour makes a huge difference. Portraits are hard because you the colour but people just don't look that natural (in the 15th century at least, they do get better) and they tend to be wealthy people. Though there is the famous Dutch artist who name escapes me who does the lovely village scenes with ordinary people in. Think that's 16th century though.

I read a novel by zola set in a 19th century Parisian laundrette. The description of how they washed the clothes was amazing - it was such hard, back breaking work. It made me very thankful for my washing machine.

and they didn't always drink beer and wine because it was safer

Wine was for the wealthy. Ale (rather than beer which required hops) was brewed for general consumption by the household as it was heated and fomented and so made safe to drink.

When did the letter J get added to the alphabet? I've got it in mind that it was later than C15th so they probably couldn't read, but if they could, may query the letters we use.

I don’t know that I would necessarily notice TBH.

The fresh modern clothes would probably reduce any smells due to lack of washing.

Hairstyles could just be someone who’s a bit eccentric or whatever.

I wouldn’t expect the height to be a giveaway, I reckon there’s still a wide enough variation in heights for a malnourished medieval peasant to pass as a short modern person.

And if I saw bad teeth, my first assumption would be a dental phobia rather than time traveller. I don’t think I’d be close enough to spot lice in a bus queue.

I think the real giveaway would be how they were reacting to their surroundings. It’s very very different now. As a pp said, a look of bemusement or terror

Fascinating topic OP. I once went to an exhibition at the Wellcome in London of skeletons uncovered In the city - it was called London's Buried Bones. The skeletons ranged from the Roman era onwards.

Loads of the skeletons had evidence of significant healed wounds/broken limbs and/or serious disease. Not all would have been very small adults, though, and some had notably good teeth (though some had terrible ones - and lots of horrendous abscesses).

I don't think you'd necessarily notice a massive amount of difference in your 15thc person in terms of actual facial features - I suspect people would generally look much the same then and today. But yes, they might have some kind of physical infirmity due to lack of medical attention following an accident or illness, which would be easily treated in the 21stc.

I’d very much recommend the Mary Rose museum in Portsmouth for anyone interested in the day to day life of working Tudors.

This is an interesting watch!

@seekingadvice23

What did women use when on their period? Must have been so uncomfortable!

They spent the majority of their adult lives pregnant