I was thinking about animals and their ability to survive seemingly huge infections and/or injuries. I'll bet you that your average Stone Age guy was closer to an animal in that regard than he was to us. While we are probably a lot stronger with regard to having immunities to certain diseases and the like, we probably aren't nearly as hardy in general and with common bacteria and organisms found in natural environments.
Tooth absesses/ infections took extremely high toll from much archaeological evidence.
