From Guy Cox, Sydney, Australia
Historical life expectancies reflect infant and child mortalities much more than adult lifespan. In other words, a woman who had lived until menopause at 50 would probably live for 20 more years to the biblical three score and 10. So, while I am not denying the value of grandmothers (let’s be clear that we benefited from them and now so do our children), in ancient societies with no contraception, a woman was likely to have children up until menopause and therefore had to live 20 years longer just to support her own offspring. So, the surprising post-menopausal lifespan could be more to do with this (27 January, p 30).
