Stories written in teeth: New archeological insights from tooth-related studies (original) (raw)
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Teeth Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology
Archaeological discoveries of teeth provide remarkable information on humans, animals and the health, hygiene and diet of ancient communities. In this fully revised and updated edition of his seminal text Simon Hillson draws together a mass of material from archaeology, anthropology and related disciplines to provide a comprehensive manual on the study of teeth. The range of mammals examined has been extended to include descriptions and line drawings for 325 mammal genera from Europe, North Africa, western, central and northeastern Asia, and North America. The book also introduces dental anatomy and the microscopic structure of dental tissues, explores how the age or season of death is estimated and looks at variations in tooth size and shape. With its detailed descriptions of the techniques and equipment used and its provision of tables and charts, this book is essential reading for students of archaeology, zoology and dental science.
Unlocking the past: The role of dental analysis in archaeology
Dental Historian, 2015
What can the study of ancient teeth tell us about the lifestyle and dietary habits of our ancestors? Dental palaeopathology is particularly important as it can provide direct evidence of the type of diet an individual consumed during life. An analysis of the angle of tooth wear evident on the crown of the tooth can help to distinguish between early hunter-gatherers and later agriculturists, whilst microwear features on the occlusal surface can help to discern subtle dietary shifts. The distributions of stable isotopes in food webs make it possible to use them to reconstruct ancient diets as well as tracing the geographic origins and migrations of peoples. Plant microfossils have been isolated from calculus which can be identified using light microscopy. Teeth are particularly useful in ancient DNA studies due to the excellent preservation of biomaterials within the enamel shell of the tooth.
The importance and representation of teeth in archaeozoological material
Collegium antropologicum, 2003
Archaeologists, in most cases, neglect animal bones and teeth, which present common material on archaeological sites. Analysis of archaeozoological material from Vucedol (Baden culture) and prehistoric cave site Vela spila on Korcula, has been applied to stress the importance of that material (especially single animal teeth) in archaeozoological samples. It is obvious that a higher percentage of single teeth influence the number of identified animal species on particular sites. One species were identified only by teeth. For the reconstruction of the environment and behavior of ancient peoples, every evidence obtained from sites is important, and because of that sieving must be part of every excavation.
DENTAL HEALTH IN THE PAST: RESEARCH AND PERSPECTIVES FROM PALEOPATHOLOGY
87th SIBS National Congress on Peoples, Environment, Health, 2014
This paper reviews the current status of dental research in paleopathology. Diseases and injuries of teeth and jaws are important topics in the study of ancient human population because they provide a wealth of information on past lifestyle, diet, illness and so are valuable indicators of environmental changes. Teeth, generally, survive well to chemical and microbial degradation in archaeological soils and they are routinely used in anthropological and paleopathological research.
Dental Anthropology-A Revolutionary Tool in Forensic Science
Journal of Pharmaceutical Research International
Dental anthropology is a field of physical anthropology that studies the origin, development, and evolution of anthropoid dentitions, as well as their relationship to social, physical, and cultural factors. Teeth have their own distinct morphology and physiology, which is in stark contrast to the body's genetic structure. Teeth are also unique among the resistant elements of archaeological and fossil remains in that they have been exposed on the body's surface throughout their lives. As a result, dental anthropology may be assessed in the mouth cavity of living humans using similar methods to those used for prehistoric relics. As a result, it's no surprise that practising dental surgeons have historically ranked well among dental anthropologists. This review’s initial purpose is to provide an overview of the morphological and non-morphological properties of animate dentitions that aid in the indirect identification of prehistoric remains and the understanding of their cu...
Dental Anthropology has produced a huge amount of information in the last decades, covering many different aspects of human biological and cultural life. For the last twenty years, a process of diversification and specialization occurred,that sometimes precluded the development of macroscale comparative studies,except for a few exceptional cases. Some reflections and critical debate have to be done to overcomethese limits and to arrive to more consensual methodological procedures. The generation, analysis and conservation of new and previously known documented human osteological collections,and the use of compatible methodologies continue to be fundamental to obtain proxy data and generate adequate protocols to carry out comparative studies involving research projects from different parts of the world. Dental Anthropology is a scientific discipline of great development in the last decades, which deals with studies of sexual dimorphism, paleodemography, oral health, lifestyle, evolutionary trends, paleodiet, biodistance and paleopathology through the analysis of the dentition of extinct and modernhuman populations[1-22,among many others]. It is an important way of investigationthat allows access to knowledge sometimes avoided by other kind of research. The microscopic structure of osseous remains is more fragile than that of teeth, and therefore tend to be more easily deteriorated, so that the latter usually form an important part of the evidence available because of the much tougher constitution of the tissues, both in archaeological cases and in the unfortunately increasing number of mass disasters, like aircraft accidents, natural catastrophes or terrorist attacks[e.g. 23-27]. Considering that tooth structure is not remodeled during life, they offer a large amount of information for understanding the biological and social dynamics of past populations [3, 14, 28, 29] and assist in the identification of missing persons through forensic anthropology procedures[30-32]. Modern Dental Anthropology is the result of systematic efforts carried out by research teams for decadesin order to strengthen the scientific nature of the discipline and tried to explain the enormous biological diversity of human populations.The vast amount of information generated byscholars such as Cameriere and their investigation teams are good examples of comprehensive and sustainedprograms that included specific and holistic investigation designs. These detailed and numerous studies were initiated during the first half of the twentieth century, and significantly diversified since the 1970s. The prolific development generated a huge amount of data about dentition, which contributed to improving knowledge about the issues mentioned above; its impact is seen in the growing interest on the subject andthe increasing incorporation of specialists in archeological and bio anthropological research groups all around the world. At present, dental anthropology is immersed in a complex scenario that requires that the multiple current analysesin force, most of which offer significant heuristic potential for improving the anthropological science, be reflexively evaluated so as to arrive tomethodological consensus that allow performing macroscale comparative studies.The definitions of the variablesstudied,their categorizations and the recording proceduresare issues that should be clearly stated and necessarily discussed within the academic community in order to reach general consensus among scholars, so as to produce comparable data and allow developing studies in large spatial and temporal scales[33]. In this way, several survey protocols and systems of nomenclature have been generated to unify criteria of analysis in other disciplines, such as bio archeology, paleodemography and paleopathology [34-38].Dental Anthropology still needs this kind of general agreement.
Dental Anthropology and Forensics: Answers to Questions Related to our Past – Review of the Literature, 2024
Dental science is directly correlated to anthropology, which is attributed to teeth's significant advantages and properties. Meanwhile, justice is better and easier served due to the contribution of forensic odontology. The aim of the present literature review is to present the decisive contribution of dental science to the investigation of human species' evolution, as well as to the demystification of criminal cases. A thorough research has been conducted in scientific databases and scientific textbooks related to our review. It is obvious that the assessment of gradual modifications in human dentition as time passes by is indicative of human species' evolution. Nowadays, it is feasible to determine an excavated skeleton's identity and, as far as the ancient civilizations are concerned, to investigate their intercultural relationships, their dietary customs and their oral health's status. With regard to forensics, the structure of cranial bones is of great assistance in demystificating legal cases. Forensic odontology provides forensic medical examiners with the opportunity to faster identify deceased people and more effectively examine abused victims. Certainly, radiographic techniques, such as periapical radiographs as well as modern radiographic methodologies (CT, CBCT, MRI), offer additional diagnostic information in forensics. So, methodologies introduced by dental science have become a remarkable assist in anthropological researches, as well as in forensics. Nevertheless, there can be noticed a limited application of forensic odontology's principles in Greece. This fact may be attributed to the technological capabilities of our country's forensic laboratories rather than the Greek experts' level of expertise.
Windows into the past: recent scientific techniques in dental analysis
British Dental Journal, 2024
Teeth are the hardest and most chemically stable tissues in the body, are well-preserved in archaeological remains and, being resistant to decomposition in the soil, survive long after their supporting structures have deteriorated. It has long been recognised that visual and radiographic examination of teeth can provide considerable information relating to the lifestyle of an individual. This paper examines the latest scientific approaches that have become available to investigate recent and ancient teeth. These techniques include DNA analysis, which can be used to determine the sex of an individual, indicate familial relationships, study population movements, provide phylogenetic information and identify the presence of disease pathogens. A stable isotopic approach can shed light on aspects of diet and mobility and even research climate change. Proteomic analysis of ancient dental calculus can reveal specific information about individual diets. Synchrotron microcomputed tomography is a non-invasive technique which can be used to visualise physiological impactful events, such as parturition, menopause and diseases in cementum microstructure – these being displayed as aberrant growth lines.
An international team of researchers question the results that led to the recent publication in the journal Nature of an article on the extraction of human DNA from a perforated deer tooth discovered in Denisova cave (Siberia). While praising the technical achievement of the palaeogeneticists who succeeded in this extraction, the researchers identify major inconsistencies in the dating of the archaeological layers and the object of adornment. They also show that an in-depth analysis of the perforated tooth, the data available on faunal remains discovered at the site, and what we know about Palaeolithic adornments could have led to a different and more problematized interpretation of the genetic data. They draw lessons from this critique on how to conduct a constructive dialogue between archaeologists and geneticists in order to propose unified narratives of the human past.
> 42 ka human teeth from El Castillo Cave (Cantabria, Spain) Mid-Upper Paleolithic transition
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
Three deciduous tooth crowns were found in Unit 18B in El Castillo Cave (Spain), considered a transitional Middle-Upper Paleolithic Unit with numerous 14C dates with means earlier than > 42–44 ka cal. BP. Our goal was to describe these teeth, compare them to Neanderthal, Mousterian Modern Humans, and Early-Mid Upper Paleolithic fossils (through scatterplots and Z-scores), and analyze their morphology. The teeth consist of deciduous and isolated crowns (one ULdi1, one ULdm2, and one LRdm2) corresponding to three children, and all of them were modified by heavy occlusal and interproximal wear. Their length and breadth diameters, shown in the bivariate scatterplots, were similar to those of the teeth of several young Neanderthals. The Z-scores of the two crown diameters with respect to the Late Neanderthal, Qafzeh and Skhul, and Aurignacian-Gravettian series had values of approximately 0, while those of the altered MDs of the ULdm2 are just below − 1, except in comparison to the las...