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?!

Lucy Worsley did a bit in one of her documentaries where she didn’t bathe for a week but did use (I think) Tudor hygiene practices. She didn’t whiff too badly at the end and concluded that people would have looked and smelled ‘natural’ but not horrible.

My father has only ever bathed once a week.

No shower either.

He has never, ever smelled bad.

I think they would be very short and have terrible teeth. They probably have some kind of remnants of a horrid diseases on them -eg pock marks.

And would also speak in a way that sounded odd - I once found a you tube vid that had people speaking a passage from various different centuries- there was a thing called the Great Vowel Shift that really changed how things were pronounced. The medieval speakers really did sound very different, I could hardly follow it. By Tudor times it was sounding more familiar.

I'll have to look it up again.

Oh a PP had already posted some good vids of changing accents!

Smaller and slighter but not much different otherwise if fit and healthy. I was looking at some portraits in a museum recently and what struck me was how modern looking the faces were once you got past the costume and hairstyles. I think most people managed to keep reasonably clean - I’ve lived in places without easy access to the facilities we have and people are very careful about hygiene - and without sugar, teeth don’t go bad.

Wouldn't they be looking for something to cover them selves up in? They would class a t shirt as under wear, which wouldn't be seen in public.

@Tulipomania

My father has only ever bathed once a week.

No shower either.

He has never, ever smelled bad.

My father’s the same.

Thanksfor the very interesting thread OP!

Some examples of a lack of understanding of history though. Schools should be teaching about ordinary lives not kings and queens.

Life before the industrial revolution really wasn't that bad.

Our seas and rivers were full of fish (no permits required!) So it was a standard diet to eat lots of fish unless you lived far inland. We mostly have great agricultural land so ordinary people kept animals who provided much more nutritious meat than you get in Tesco today. With fresh eggs, home made dairy, fruit from the fields, preserves for winter it could be a diet to aspire to today!

A person then would have been hairier, greyer, more tanned, more wrinkled, fitter than today.

Their hands and feet would have been much more calloused.

Constant pregnancy is a myth. Age of marriage was much higher than after the industrial revolution. Breastfeeding til 4 was common and women understood natural birth control better.

It was when formula was invented that small gaps between pregnancies became more common.

People also used makeshift condoms.

Official marriage also wasn't a thing amongst the commoners. There was no need as they had no assets.

As for drinking water, alcohol was safer but drinks had less alcohol in them than today. The discovery of water borne diseases such as cholera was revolutionary but took some convincing!

@Toddlerteaplease

Wouldn't they be looking for something to cover them selves up in? They would class a t shirt as under wear, which wouldn't be seen in public.

The more I think about it the more I think they would absolutely be cowering frozen in terror. At their own appearance. And at the sights, sounds and smells around them. Unless it is a truly rural village, think how scary the sound and smell of even quiet roads would be.

I thought I was the only one who thought about this . Glad to know that there are many of us. Wandering around Pompeii really brought it home , seeing how streets , etc were arranged. Physically not that different to us and able to calculate and engineer buildings . And have relationships , family issues.
Also , when you read about Tudor pageants with hoists and stage sets , read8ng Latin and Greek , it seems that they are more intelligent than us!

Sorry, haven't read the full thread so apologies if anyone has posted, but these are fascinating:
mymodernmet.com/royalty-now-modernized-historic-portraits/

[quote LonstantonSpiceMuseum]OP you might be interested in this artist, she takes famous historical portraits and puts them in modern clothes! Some look quite normal, some don't
mymodernmet.com/royalty-now-historical-figures-modern-portraits/[/quote]
Loved this! Thanks for the link!

I think our 15th century person would be likely to be carrying a knife to defend themselves. Lots of brawls and a high murder rate in the towns.

[quote reprehensibleme]Sorry, haven't read the full thread so apologies if anyone has posted, but these are fascinating:
mymodernmet.com/royalty-now-modernized-historic-portraits/[/quote]
And to you! 😃

Forgot to say great thread OP - thank you!

www.waterstones.com/book/the-year-1000/robert-lacey/danny-danziger/9780349113067
^This is a book I enjoyed about everyday life in the past (albeit a much earlier time).

Why is everyone saying their teeth would be terrible? Toothbrushes were invented bc. It was known you needed to take care of them. Also their diet had virtually no processed sugar and a lot less sugar from natural sources. They weren't drinking orange juice, tea with 3 sugars and half a pack of biscuits. Yes they didn't have whitening and braces but plenty of people today don't have those things either.

They would be speaking something resembling English but if Anybody's read the Canterbury tales, You'd struggle to understand.

@Egghead68

I think our 15th century person would be likely to be carrying a knife to defend themselves. Lots of brawls and a high murder rate in the towns.

Possibly two knives since people carried their own eating knife and then maybe a dagger for defence.

Sadly, there were a lot of deaths because people got stabbed by their own eating knives ie: if you fall when running with an eating knife at your waist and it goes into your femoral(?) artery, you are unlikely to survive in the 15th century.

Maybe the act if time travelling will strip them of weapons as well as historic clothes... or it could be a quick trip to the police station. Which would at least be a bit more pleasant than a 15th century jail and with less risk if corporal punishment.

[quote reprehensibleme]Sorry, haven't read the full thread so apologies if anyone has posted, but these are fascinating:
mymodernmet.com/royalty-now-modernized-historic-portraits/[/quote]
Thank you for this! Exactly what I was trying to do in my head the other day (looking at some miniatures in the V&A).

And thanks OP.

Where I grew up in Africa, diets are less sugary and people have beautiful strong teeth. I think they would have looked pretty similar. And combs were around

I’ve tried making gingerbread using a Tudor recipe. It’s nothing like modern day gingerbread, as the overwhelming taste is pepper.

More scars, fewer teeth is my view.

@spookycookies

Why is everyone saying their teeth would be terrible? Toothbrushes were invented bc. It was known you needed to take care of them. Also their diet had virtually no processed sugar and a lot less sugar from natural sources. They weren't drinking orange juice, tea with 3 sugars and half a pack of biscuits. Yes they didn't have whitening and braces but plenty of people today don't have those things either.

They would be speaking something resembling English but if Anybody's read the Canterbury tales, You'd struggle to understand.

There were still dental diseases, though - at the exhibition of historic skeletons I mentioned upthread, a significant number had horrible untreated abscesses that would have caused them agony.

As others have said, eating bread made from flour that wasn't finely-ground wore down the teeth quickly, even of young people.

Having said that, I'm sure some people did take care of their teeth as far as they could with the (few) means available. I recently read a review of a history of cleanliness and bad breath, for eg, was very much frowned on. Apparently in the 10th century in Wales, wives were allowed a marital separation if their husbands had stinking breath....

Research has shown that our jaws have changed due to the use of cutlery giving most of us an overbite. So looking at their teeth would potentially give you a clue because regular use of cutlery happened around 250 years ago. The same change occurred in Asia with the use of chopsticks.