this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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If they lived in areas with a lot of sunshine, they developed dark skin. If they didn't, they developed light skin. Beyond that, if they were light skinned and moved to areas with a lot of sunshine they wore long sleeves and wide brimmed hats even in hot weather, and their face and neck skin turned to leather. They typically didn't live long enough for skin cancer to be a concern.
As I said in a other comment, I think "they didn't live long enough" is a bit of misconception. I'll repeat my comment here rather than writing it out again:
"So I'm no expert, so take this with a grain of salt, but it's my understanding that while average ages were much lower in the past, this number is heavily skewed by infant mortalities and deaths due to preventable disease. As I understand it, the expected age of an otherwise healthy individual was pretty comparable to us today. More people died young, but those who didn't lived about as long as us. So I don't think not living long enough for skin cancer to take effect really jives with my understanding of history.
But again, I'm not an expert and the likelihood that I'm just an idiot who is wildly misunderstanding things is, frankly, high."
It's the "more people died young" part that meant it wasn't an ever present problem like it is today. We might have had more ozone to protect people too, although that's just wild conjecture.