Dental Indicators of Health in Early Neolithic and Iron Age (original) (raw)

This study introduces, for the first time, data recorded in some of the oldest Neolithic skeletons from Taiwan and investigates biocultural implications of changes in subsistence in the earliest Neolithic and later Iron Age Taiwan. Human skeletons from two archaeological sites in Taiwan are included. The first skeletal series is from the Nankuanli East (NKLE) site (n = 23 individuals) located in the Tainan Science Park, Tainan City in southwestern Taiwan. The NKLE skeletons are associated with the Tapenkeng culture (ca. 5000 years BP), the earliest Neolithic cultural sequence in Taiwan. The second skeletal series from Taiwan is from the Shisanhang (SSH) site (n = 23 individuals), an Iron Age site (ca. 1800-500 years BP) located in northwestern Taiwan. The main objectives of this study are to 1) document selected indicators of oral/dental (antemortem tooth loss -AMTL, dental caries, alveolar resorption, alveolar defects, dental calculus, and dental attrition) and physiological (linear enamel hypoplasia-LEH) health in the NKLE skeletons, 2) examine differences between male and female NKLE skeletons, 3) compare health in the early Neolithic and Iron Age Taiwan, and 4) place the prehistoric skeletons from Taiwan in a broader regional perspective.