The way we were …

… Medieval skeleton’s boots reveal harsh realities of life on the Thames | Ars Technica. 

The boots, combined with evidence from his bones, suggest that the man may have died on the river while trying to earn a living. The condition of his bones suggests that he was about 35—near the upper end of average life expectancy for a man in Tudor England, which ranged from around 35 to around 42. It had been a hard life of intense physical work, leaving the man with signs of osteoarthritis, which would, no doubt, have caused considerable aches and pains. Deep grooves worn into his teeth suggest the nature of that work: that kind of wear often comes from passing or holding a rope between one’s teeth, as a medieval fisherman or sailor might have done.