About stature change, Stature is a ever changing feature in human populations, and is influenced by nutrition and disease. If an individual or population is under additional stress such as lifeway change (agricuture, famine, endemic pathology, etc) there will be a decrease in the growth potential for that individual or population. Your discussion of heights in human populations in the historical past may be derived from secular trend studies done using skeletal populations from Europe or from American populations. One reference that comes to mind is fairly old, but may be of interest; Huber, Neil; The problem of stature increase:Looking from the past to the present. in Brothwell, D. (ed) The Skeletal Biology of Earlier Human Populations, Pergamon Press, 1968. pp. 67-102. You may also want to check the publication: Foetus into Man, by J.M. Tanner, Harverd Univ. Press, 1978 for references to secular trends in stature as part of the section on stature growth and development. If you are wanting to compare to other populations and how they are affected in growth, see: The Measures of Man, (ed) by Eugene Giles and Jon Friedlaender , Peabody Museum Press, 1976 for research in environmental stress, especially pp. 230-259, 408-432, and 142-163 and 181-193. Other researchers in Forensic Anthropology are dealing with the aspects of stature differences in the past century, you may want to contact Dr. Richard Jantz at the Univ. of Tennesse concerning this. There should be some information available at the Census Bureau in Washington, and/or more probably at the NIH. I hope that this has been of some help to you in your quest for this information Sincerely, David R. Hunt Dept of Anthro. National Museum of Naturla History Smithsonian Institution