Another question rattling in my brain.....
(this is what you get when you mix a degree in medical anthropology with a history obsession...)
So, Its a common idea among the general public that people in the ancient world drank ALOT of beer and wine, especially in Europe, because the water was tainted and unhealthy.It would then seem that nearly everybody born would by default have been exposed to alot of alcohol in utero,because the mothers would also be drinking booze instead of tainted water.In other circumstances where alcohol was consumed even moderately by mothers, there have been lots of cases of fetal alcohol syndrome.So it would stand to reason that there would have been many many children born with this condition in the ancient world.
However, you dont read reports of lots of slow, retarded children being born, why is that?

Were the alcoholic beverages different/weaker than now, and therefore didn't have an effect?Did the wealthier people ,who were doing all the writing, not have to drink beer because of having access to better water, and therefore did not have sub normal children, so we are seeing errors of what is reported? Or was it that the fetal alcohol children were not considered abnormal enough to write about because everybody was somewhat deficient?

What am i missing here?
Thankyou again for making Tribe awesome