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Longevity myths are myths (in the technical sense) and traditions about longevity. The phrase "longevity myth" refers to the tendency of most cultures to inflate the ages of elders, as a sociocultural artifact. Occasionally, "longevity myth" is used in its nontechnical sense. The phrase "longevity tradition" may also refer to "diets, drugs, alchemy, physical practices, and certainly also mental states" that have been believed to confer greater human longevity, especially in Oriental culture.

Scientific status

There is insufficient evidence either to demonstrate or to refute centenarian longevity prior to the nineteenth century. Even today, no fixed theoretical limit to human longevity is apparent. Studies in the biodemography of human longevity indicate a late-life mortality deceleration law: that death rates level off at advanced ages to a late-life mortality plateau. That is, there is no fixed upper limit to human longevity, or fixed maximal human lifespan. This law was first quantified in 1939, when researchers found that the one-year probability of death at advanced age asymptotically approaches a limit of 44% for women and 54% for men.

Categorization

An essay appearing in many editions of Guinness World Records in the 1980s lists four categories of recent claims: "In late life, very old people often tend to advance their ages at the rate of about 17 years per decade .... Several celebrated super-centenarians (over 110 years) are believed to have been double lives (father and son, relations with the same names or successive bearers of a title) .... A number of instances have been commercially sponsored, while a fourth category of recent claims are those made for political ends ...."

Guinness implies other (historical) categories of longevity traditions to exist as well. Actuary Walter G. Bowerman states that longevity assertions originate mainly in remote, underdeveloped regions, among illiterate peoples, evidenced by nothing more than family testimony.

Historical traditions

Patriarchs

The patriarchal myths link humans to God or the gods. In many cases, the ages of these patriarchs are unrealistically exaggerated in order to extend a genealogy back into the past and bring it closer to the creation of the world or some other significant mythic landmark.

Sumerian

Extreme ages were typical in Sumerian genealogies. Age claims for the earliest eight kings in the major recension were in units and fractions of shar (3,600 years) and totaled 67 shar or 241,200 years. Documenting groups of people who had lived for hundreds of years was common in Sumer as well as the Indus Valley.

• In the only ten-king tablet recension of this list, known as WB 62, three kings (Alalngar, kidunnu, and En-men-dur-ana) are recorded as having reigned 72,000 years each.
• The major recension of the Sumerian King List assigns 43,200 years to the reign of En-men-lu-ana, and 36,000 years each to those of Alalngar and Dumuzid.

The reigns in the Sumerian king list change in their average value every time the kingship moved from one city-state to another, which has been explained by the fact each city-state of Mesopotamia had a different number system from its neighbors and there were usually multiple number systems used for different purposes within each city-state. These various number systems were later standarized in a common sexagesimal system.Template:Biblical longevity

Biblical

The Biblical upper limit of longevity has been categorized by Bible scholar Witness Lee as having four successive plateaus of 1,000, 500, 250, and finally 120 years. The Torah claims several individuals with long lifespans.

Interpretations

Biblical apologists that assert literal translation give explanations for the advanced ages of the early patriarchs: in this view, first, man was originally to have everlasting life, but as sin was introduced into the world by Adam and Eve, its influence became greater with each generation and God progressively shortened man's life; "four falls of mankind" (according to Witness Lee) correspond to four observable plateaus in longevity upper limits. Second, before Noah's flood, a "firmament" over the earth (Genesis 1:6–8) could have greatly contributed to man's advanced age. Third, biological DNA damage may cause genetically accelerated aging; experimentation with lengthening telomeres on worms has yielded increased worm life spans by about 20% and this may slow aging at the cost of increasing cancer vulnerability.

Some literary critics explain these extreme ages as ancient mistranslations that converted the word "month" to "year", mistaking lunar cycles for solar ones: this would turn an age of 969 "years" into a more reasonable 969 lunar months, or 78½ years of the Metonic cycle. This introduces an inconsistency as the ages of the first nine patriarchs at fatherhood, ranging from 62 to 230 years in the manuscripts, would then be transformed into the implausible range of 5 to 18½ years. Others say that the first list, of only 10 names for 1,656 years, may contain generational gaps, which would have been represented by the lengthy lifetimes attributed to the patriarchs.

Nineteenth-century critic Vincent Goehlert suggests the lifetimes "represented epochs merely, to which were given the names of the personages especially prominent in such epochs, who, in consequence of their comparatively long lives were able to acquire an exalted influence."

Persian

The reigns of several shahs in the Shahnameh, an epic poem by Ferdowsi, are given as longer than a century:

• Zahhak, 1000 years.
• Jamshid, 700 years.
• Fereydun, 500 years.
• Askani, 200 years.
• Kay Kāvus, 150 years.
• Manuchehr, 120 years.
• Lohrasp, 120 years.
• Goshtasp, 120 years.

Japanese

Some early emperors of Japan ruled for more than a century, according to the tradition documented in the Kojiki, viz., Emperor Jimmu and Emperor Kōan. Recent studies support the view that eight emperors were invented to push the reign of Emperor Jimmu back in time to the epochal year 660 B.C.

• Emperor Jimmu (traditionally, 13 February 711 BC – 11 March 585 BC) lived 126 years according to the Kojiki. These dates correspond to 126 years, 27 days, on the proleptic Julian and Gregorian calendars. However, the form of his posthumous name suggests that it was invented in the reign of Kwammu (782–806), or possibly during the time in which legends about the origins of the Yamato dynasty were compiled into the Kojiki.

Korean

• Taejo of Goguryeo (47? – 165) is generally accepted as having reigned in Korea for 93 years beginning at age 7. After his retirement, the Samguk Sagi and Samguk Yusa give his age at death as 118.

Chinese

In Chinese legend (cf. Carefree Travel of Zhuang Zi), Peng Zu was believed to have lived for 800 years, spanning part of the Yin Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty.

Religious

Some Taoists claimed to have lived to over 200 years; these claims were related to Taoist practice. Swami Bua inconsistently states his birth date, but generally claims to have been born around 1889.

Christian

• Saint Servatius, bishop of Tongeren in continental Europe, was consecrated at the alleged age of 297, and is said to have lived for 375 years (9 AD – 13 May 384).
• Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite, a Coptic saint, is said to have lived 348-466 AD, reaching 118 years.
• Saint Kentigern, patron saint of Glasgow in Britain in the Middle Ages, died shortly after 600 at the alleged age of 185. Today his age is given as 85 rather than 185.

Islamic

Abdul Azziz al-Hafeed al-Habashi (عبد العزيزالحبشي) lived from 581 to 1276 of the Hijra (11 June 1185 – 19 September 1859), 695 lunar years or 674 solar years, according to 19th-century scholars.

Falun Gong

Chapter 2 of Falun Gong by Li Hongzhi (2001) states, "A person in Japan named Mitsu Taira lived to be 242 years old. During the Tang Dynasty in our country, there was a monk called Hui Zhao who lived to be 290 years old. According to the county annals of Yong Tai in Fujian Province, Chen Jun was born in the first year of Zhong He time (881 AD) under the reign of Emperor Xi Zong during the Tang Dynasty. He died in the Tai Ding time of the Yuan Dynasty (1324 AD), after living for 443 years."

Alchemists

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Traditions that have been believed to confer greater human longevity include "alchemy". The idea that humans could transform their own substance using techniques such as alchemy became popular during the 15th and 16th centuries.

• Fridericus (Ludovicus) Gualdus, author of "Revelation of the True Chemical Wisdom", lived in Venice in the 1680s. His age was believed to be over 400. By some accounts, when asked about a portrait he carried, he said it was of himself, painted by Titian (who died in 1576), but gave no explanation and left Venice the following morning. By another account, Gualdus left Venice due to religious accusations and died in 1724. The "Compass der Weisen" alludes to him as still alive in 1782 and nearly 600 years old.

• Nicolas Flamel (early 1330s - 1418?) was a 14th-century scrivener who developed a reputation as alchemist and creator of an "elixir of life" that conferred drink immortality upon himself and his wife Perenelle. His arcanely inscribed tombstone is preserved at the Musée de Cluny in Paris.

Fountains

The Fountain of Youth reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters. The New Testament, following older Jewish tradition, attributes healing to the Pool of Bethesda when the waters are "stirred" by an angel. Herodotus attributes exceptional longevity to a fountain in the land of the Ethiopians. The lore of the Alexander Romance and of Al-Khidr describes such a fountain, and stories about the philosopher's stone, universal panaceas, and the elixir of life are widespread.

After the death of Juan Ponce de León, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo wrote in Historia General y Natural de las Indias (1535) that Ponce de León was looking for the waters of Bimini to cure his aging.

Potions

Some traditions describe some natural source, potion, or other secret that provides healing and particularly longevity and youthful health (eternal youth). The desire to avoid death was exploited by charlatans and snake oil salesmen who sold potions that promised longevity. It was common to locate a very old person and then to claim that person as an example of successful use of the potion.

Village elders

The village elder myth reflects a preliterate societal respect for aging, patriarchy, etc., that leads to exceptional age claims intended to venerate the oldest person in the village.

Village elder stories suggest an understanding that persons in the immediate era do not generally attain the ages of the ancients, but that an exceptional claim on behalf of one village elder is culturally appropriate.

The stories originally centered on the tribal chieftain, but in locations of distributed societal power, an elderly woman began to be substituted as the central figure. The village elder represented a source of pride and of oral tradition, and a person to commemorate.

Recent traditions

Overadvancements

Guinness estimates overadvancement of age by very old people to average 17 years per decade. The 1970 U.S. census listed 106,000 people claiming to be 100 years old or older, some over 130. The following cases illustrate how more reliable documentation has demonstrated overadvancements:

• Shirali Muslimov (26 March 1805? – 4 September 1973), of Barzavu, Azerbaijan, in the Caucasus mountains, was allegedly aged 168 years, 162 days, based solely on a passport. National Geographic carried the claim; it was later disproven by Zhores A. Medvedev.
• The Caucasus also claimed 500 people aged over 120; such claims were fostered by Georgian-born Joseph Stalin's apparent hope that he would live long past 70. Zhores A. Medvedev demonstrated that all 500 Caucasus claims failed birth-record validation and other tests.
• Walter Williams claimed to be a Confederate soldier aged 117 in 1959; research that year by New York Times reporter Lowell K. Bridwell indicated that Williams was then really 105. (In 1973 a woman claimed to be a Confederate widow at 117.)
• Sylvester Magee, allegedly 126, and Charlie Smith, allegedly 125, were featured by Time Magazine in 1967. Smith claimed an 1842 birth and died in 1979, but his marriage certificate indicated he lived only to 105, and the 1900 census indicated he lived only to 100. Magee claimed a birth on 29 May 1841 and died in 1971 on 15 October.

Double lives

Several supercentenarian claims are believed to constitute double lives, conflating father and son, relations with the same names, or successive bearers of a title.

• Thomas Parr (February 1483? – 14 November 1635) was allegedly 152. According to P. Lüth, the results of Parr's autopsy by William Harvey (who believed the claim) suggest that Parr was probably under 70 years of age. It is possible that Parr's records were confused with those of his grandfather.
• Pierre Joubert lived in Canada 113 years, 124 days (15 July 1701 – 16 November 1814), according to editions of Guinness. In reality, he died at 65 and his son and namesake died in 1814.

Political claims

The nationalist outgrowth idea became widespread in the rise of nationalism in the 20th century. As popular ideas became focused on one nation versus another, extreme age claims became a source of national pride.

Brazil

RankBrasil, a Brazilian competitor of Guinness, has made several unsubstantiated claims.

• Maria Olivia da Silva (28 February 1880? - 8 July 2010), 130 years, 130 days.
• Maria Do Carmo Geronimo (5 March 1871? - 14 July 2000), 129 years, 101 days.
• Rosalina Francisca da Silva (6 August 1886? - ), 138 years, 155 days.
• Ana Martinha da Silva (27 August 1880? - 27 July 2004), 123 years, 337 days.
• Joana Ribeiro da Silva (25 May 1888? - ), 136 years, 228 days.

China

• Lucian wrote about the "Seres" (a Chinese people), claiming they lived for 300 years.
• A Time Magazine story announced the death in 1933 (on 6 May) of the Republic of China's Li Ching-Yuen (李青云, Li Qing Yun), who claimed to be born in 1736, age 197. The article noted that "respectful Chinese preferred to think" Li was 150 in 1827, based on a government congratulatory message, and died at age 256.
• Du Pinhua of the People's Republic of China (22 April 1886? – 11 December 2006) was attributed a lifespan of 120 years, 233 days, perhaps to counter the relatively verified supercentenary claims of Japan's Kamato Hongo.

Colombia

Javier Pereira, an aboriginal resident of Colombia, claimed to have been born in 1789. Time Magazine stated he was "generally considered the oldest man on earth". In 1956, in his only departure from Colombia, Pereira was examined by New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center physicians, who described him as "possibly ... more than 150 years old"; Ripley's Believe It or Not! also was associated with his claim. He died on March 30, 1958, in Montería, Colombia, and was honored by a local postage stamp with the motto, "Don't worry. Drink coffee and smoke a good cigar." It was said that Pereira's age was determined by a dentist looking at his teeth.

Cuba

In Cuba, the world's oldest man was claimed to be Benito Martínez. Recently, the fountain of youth myth was also invoked to explain Cuba's longevity.

Ecuador

A National Geographic article in 1973 treated with respect some longevity traditions like those of the high mountain valley of Vilcabamba, Ecuador, where locals had claimed ancestors' baptismal records as their own.

France

• A pensioner in Goust (a hamlet in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of France) was reported in 1605 to have reached the age of 123.

Great Britain

• Thomas Cam (1381 – January 1588) was allegedly 207. Chapter 2 of Falun Gong by Li Hongzhi (2001) states, "According to records, there was a person in Britain named Femcath who lived for 207 years."
• A brief biography of Henry Jenkins (17 May 1500 – 8 December 1670), of Ellerton-on-Swale, Yorkshire, was written by Anne Saville in 1663 based on Jenkins's description, which would give his age at death as 169 (birth year 1501); he also claimed to recall the 1513 Battle of Flodden Field. However, Jenkins also testified in 1667, in favor of Charles Anthony in a court case against Calvert Smythson, that he was then only 157 or thereabouts.
• Thomas Newman (1389?-1542) was allegedly 153.

Ireland

Katherine FitzGerald (1464?-1604), allegedly 140, had significant evidence of being at least centenarian.

Italy

In Roman times, Pliny wrote about longevity records from the census carried out in 74 AD under Vespasian. In one region of Italy many people allegedly lived past 100; four were said to be 130, others even older. The ancient Greek author Lucian is the presumed author of Macrobii (long-livers), a work devoted to longevity. Most of the examples Lucian gives are what would be regarded as normal long lifespans (80–100 years).

• Tiresias, the blind seer of Thebes, was alive for 600 years (Lucian).
• Nestor lived three centuries (Lucian).
• Epimenides of Crete (7th, 6th centuries B.C.) is said to have lived 154, 157 or 290 years.

India

• Sadhu Sundar Singh, a 19th-century Christian missionary to Tibet, was said to have encountered an obscure hermit living in the Himalayan mountains, who claimed to be over 300 years of age.
• Trailanga Swami (also called Trailinga Swami, Ganapati Saraswati) was a Hindu yogi renowned for his spiritual powers who lived in Varanasi, India. He is considered a legendary figure in Bengal, with many stories told of his powers of yoga and longevity. According to some witnesses he was born in 1529 (according to others 1607) at Holi in Vizianagaram district, which belongs to the state of Andhra Pradesh, residing in Varanasi between 1737 and 1887. He died in the Gange Valley 26 December 1887, reportedly at 280 or 358 years. He is considered an incarnation of the god Shiva, and Ramakrishna, a contemporary Bengali saint, referred to him as "The walking Shiva of Varanasi".

Japan

The Okinawa diet has some reputation of linkage to exceptionally high ages. The tradition of Okinawan lifestyle being suitable to longevity has been lost lately, as demonstrated by comparison of 1995 and 2000 statistics; in a journal article, this tradition of lifestyle was called both "myth" and "fact".

Pakistan

The 1973 National Geographic article on longevity also reported, as a very aged people, the Burusho or Hunza people in the Hunza Valley of the mountains of Pakistan, without any documentary evidence being cited. Apparent age "heaping" suggested unreliability, because significantly often, the oldest ages ended in 0 or 5, indicating the ages were guesses, not real measurements.

South Africa

• Moloko Temo (4 July 1874? - 2 or 3 June 2009) died in South Africa at the alleged age of 134.

Soviet

Time considered that the Soviets had elevated longevity to a state-supported "Methuselah cult".

• Sarhat Rashidova (1875? - 16 January 2007) died in Russia at the alleged age of 131.
• In 2003, health officials in Chechnya declared that Zabani Khakimova was at least 124 years old; she died later in 2003.
• In 2004, The Moscow (Russia) Times reported that 122-year-old Pasikhat Dzhukalayeva, also of Chechnya, claimed to have been born in 1881, without a birthdate.

Turkey

• Zaro Aga (1777? - 29 June 1934) died in Turkey at the alleged age of 157 years.

Regional extension

An extension and adaptation of the fountain of youth concept is the idea that a person seeking extreme longevity needs to move to a special district that carries what is needed to attain extreme age. This story differs from the Fountain of Youth in that it focuses on an entire village, a mountain region, or a national treasure. Such a location can also be called a Shangri-La. "Shangri-La" is a fictional mountain area in the 20th-century novel Lost Horizon, which contained an entire village of long-lived or eternally lived people.

Ascribing unique longevity to a particular "village of centenarians" is common across many cultures. Many populations have reputations of producing unusual number of individuals with exceptionally high ages.

Familial extension

Other longevity myths are race-based or family-based, proposing unproven beliefs that a certain race or tribe tends to live longer than others.

Commercial sponsors

In the "P. T. Barnum" longevity stories, one claims to be a great age to attract attention to oneself and/or to obtain money. Barnum himself exhibited Joice Heth as 161; her autopsy indicated she was under 80. The exhibitionist tradition was carried on by Robert L. Ripley, who regularly reported supercentenarian claims in Ripley's Believe It or Not!, usually citing his own reputation as a fact-checker to claim reliability. Ripley reported that:

• Yaupa (1769?-1899) of Futuna Island, Vanuatu, continued to work his farm at the age of 130.
• Horoz Ali of Cyprus lived to 120.
• Francisco Huppazoli (1587–1702) of Italy lived 114 years and fathered four children after age 98.

The odd wire correspondent looking for a captivating filler reports extreme undocumented claims to this day: in early 2000, a Nepalese man claimed to have been born in 1832, citing as evidence a card issued in 1988. In December 2003, a Chinese news service claimed incorrectly that Guinness had recognized a woman in Saudi Arabia as being 131.

Examples of longevity myths: individual cases

Listed below are some individually-famous longevity myths that are either considered discredited, disproven, or simply not believable:

Name	Claimed birth	Death	Alleged age	Country of birth	Country of death or residence
Amm Atwa el Aiss	circa 1780	1998	over 200 years	Egypt	Egypt
Turinah	7 June 1853	Living	157 years	Dutch East Indies	Indonesia
Habib Miyan	28 May 1870	19 August 2008	138 years	British Raj	India
Old Henry Francisco	31 May 1686	20 October 1820	134 years	England  France	England
Sahan Dosova	27 March 1879	9 May 2009	130 years	Kazakhstan	Kazakhstan
Tuti Yusupova	1 July 1880	Living	130 years	Uzbekistan	Uzbekistan
Antisa Khvichava	8 July 1880	Living	130 years	Georgia	Georgia
Watfa al-Ghanem	1880	Living	130 years	Syria	Syria
Scolastica Oliveri	1448	1578	130 years	Italy	Italy

See also

• Biodemography of human longevity
• Hayflick limit
• Human nature
• Genealogies of Genesis
• William Thoms
• Elixir of life

References

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49. Ripley Enterprises, Inc. (September 1969). Ripley's Believe It or Not! 15th Series. New York City: Pocket Books. p. 112. The Old Man of the Sea / Yaupa / a native of Futuna, one of the New Hebrides Islands / regularly worked his own farm at the age of 130 / He died in 1899 of measles — a children's disease
50. Ripley Enterprises, Inc. (September 1969). Ripley's Believe It or Not! 15th Series. New York City: Pocket Books. p. 84. Horoz Ali the last Turkish gatekeeper of Nicosia, Cyprus, lived to the age of 120
51. Ripley Enterprises, Inc. (September 1969). Ripley's Believe It or Not! 15th Series. New York City: Pocket Books. p. 56. Francisco Huppazoli (1587-1702) of Casale, Italy, lived 114 years without a day's illness and had 4 children by his 5th wife — whom he married at the age of 98
52. Variously claimed birth in 1878, 1872, 1870, and 1869. 1878 is per the original claim.Report on the death of Habib Miyan
53. Henry Francisco's biographical life
54. Report on the death of Sahan Dosova
55. Report on Tuti Yusupova's claimed 130th birthday
56. Report on Antisa Khvichava at the claimed age of 130 Template:Cn icon
57. Report on Watfa al-Ghanem at the alleged age of 128
58. Report on Watfa al-Ghanem at the alleged age of 129
59. Report on Scolastica Oliveri

Bibliography

• Boia, Lucian (2004). Forever Young: A Cultural History of Longevity from Antiquity to the Present. ISBN 1861891547.
• Thoms, William J. (1879). The Longevity of Man. Its Facts and Its Fictions. With a prefatory letter to Prof. Owen, C.B., F.R.S. on the limits and frequency of exceptional cases. London: F. Norgate.

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