Ward has done a great job in presenting Angel's estimates of human age
spans from paleolithic times to present.   I also disagree with Kevin
Tisdel's statement saying "paleolithic man was lucky to live into their
twenties".
        The fossil record for the paleolithic period is obviously VERY
incomplete and therefore there is no means to provide an unbiased
statistical analysis of life tables for populations living 20,000-30,000
years ago or more.   The entire number of fossil hominids ever found for
this period could fit nicely into a small room.   We have very little
evidence on how these people died, nor can the age at death be
accurately determined.   We certainly can distinguish between child and
adulthood, but relative age at death during adulthood can only be
broadly estimated.
        The best surrogate for studying the age distribution of pleistocene
humans is the age distribution of living hunter gatherers.   This
information is also inexact as most hunter gatherers, because of
illiteracy,  do not keep precise records of age.   The only data I know
of in which life tables have been established for living hunter
gatherers is that of Neel's work with the South American Yanomama (JV
Neel.  Health and disease in unacculturated Amerindian populations. Ciba
Foundation Symposium #49; 1977, 155-177.).   During the early 1960's to
the mid 1970's, Neel and colleagues made a census of 29 Yanomama
villages (there was minimal western contact at this time) and developed
a life table showing percentage of the population by age groups.   He
compared the life table curves of the Yanomama to that in Japan (the
world leader) during the mid 1960's and to that of India in 1900.
Obviously, the Japanese were far superior to the Yanomama at every point
on the curve, however the Yanomama  life table curves were superior to
those of Asians living in India until age 40 and were at least equal to
those of the Asians until age 80.   This data is remarkable given that
the Yanomama have no modern medicine, engage in constant inter-tribal
warfare and live in an environment  where tropical diseases are rampant.
   So, this data suggests that modern day hunter gatherers have higher
mortality rates throughout their lifespan when compared to modern,
industrialized societies, but lower rates than in poor, agrarian
societies.
        For estimates of the activity levels of paleolithic man, I refer Kevin
to our most recent paper on this concept (Cordain L, Gotshall RW, Eaton
SB.  Evolutionary aspects of exercise. World Rev of Nutrition 1997 81:in
press).

                                        Loren Cordain, Ph.D.