Exploring the relationship between dental wear and status in late medieval subadults from England (original) (raw)
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Dental pathology and wear data can provide valuable insights into diet, cultural practices, and the health of populations. In this study, various dental pathologies and types of wear were recorded for 41 individuals (914 permanent teeth), excavated from the medieval cemetery of St. Owens Church in Southgate Street, Gloucester. Teeth were studied macroscopically with a 10x hand lens to confirm the presence of specific pathologies. Relatively high rates of antemortem chipping on the anterior teeth, and the presence of maxillary central incisor notches, suggested that the Gloucester population commonly used their teeth for non-masticatory activities. Abscessing and antemortem tooth loss fell within previously reported ranges for British medieval sites (2.6% and 6% respectively). However, the sample exhibits extremely high levels of carious lesions and calculus. Nearly 24% of teeth have at least one carious lesion, and the presence of calculus was recorded in 74% of teeth within the sam...
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2022
The chart relating molar wear to age published by Brothwell in 1963 is widely used to estimate age at death in archaeological adult human skeletal remains, especially in Britain, but also more widely. The chart was based on examination of juvenile and adult dentitions from Neolithic to Medieval periods from Britain, but few further details of materials and methods were given. The aim of this work is to reassess the value of molar wear for estimating age at death for adult human remains in Britain and, if necessary, to provide an updated replacement for the Brothwell chart. 870 dentitions (juveniles with at least one permanent molar erupted and adults) were examined dating from the Neolithic period onward. The aim was to use a Miles-like method to assess the relationship between molar wear and agei.e. to calibrate wear rates using juvenile dentitions and then, by extrapolating from this baseline, estimating age from wear in individuals with successively more worn dentitions. We validate some key assumptions of the method. Molar wear bears a consistent relationship to dental age in juveniles and does not appear to vary greatly from Neolithic to Medieval times, nor in the post-Medieval rural group studied. First and second molars appear to wear at similar rates, as do third molars except in dentitions where wear is very advanced. The estimated rate of molar wear is somewhat slower than that estimated by Brothwell. The results allow a chart to be presented that replaces Brothwell's (1963) chart, and permits age estimation from molar wear in British archaeological human remains dating from Neolithic to Medieval times and, tentatively, for rural post-Medieval remains. It is not applicable to post-Medieval remains from most urban contexts where dental wear is much reduced.
A panorama of tooth wear during the medieval period
Anthropologischer Anzeiger; Bericht uber die biologisch-anthropologische Literatur, 2014
Tooth wear is a natural phenomenon and a universal occurrence that has existed from the origin of humankind and depends on the way of life, especially diet. Tooth wear was very serious in ancient populations up to the medieval period. The aim of this paper is to present a global view of tooth wear in medieval times in Europe through different parameters: scoring systems, quantity and direction of wear, gender, differences between maxilla and mandible, relations with diet, caries, tooth malpositions and age.
The Mediaeval Journal, 2018
Non-adult dental disease has the potential to inform us about childhood in the past; including factors such as oral health, oral hygiene, diet, nutrition, subsistence practices, social status, and temporal changes. Adult dental disease has been well studied in medieval skeletal remains, however dental disease in non-adults has been largely overlooked. This has led to a significant misdiagnosis of non-adult dental diseases, as well as an overall paucity of comparable datasets. This study synthesizes and analyses skeletal data from 2613 non-adult (individuals up to sixteen years of age) skeletons from fifty sites in England AD 1000 – 1700. This study aimed to fill in the gap in the current bioarchaeological data for non-adult dental disease prevalence rates in medieval England. It also aimed to assess evidence for temporal trends in dental disease, specifically, in non-adults which may relate to broader social changes. Strong trends in the datasets were observed, with a particularly striking change occurring around the period of the dissolution of the monasteries and the English Reformation during the 16th century. Chronological and spatial variation was present but overall, dental health was found to decline from the eleventh through to the seventeenth century. It was concluded that specific non-adult dental disease methods are evidently needed in order to sufficiently record and analyse any such data.
2019
This study conducted the first three dimensional microwear texture analysis of human deciduous teeth to reconstruct the physical properties of medieval childhood diet (age 1-8yrs) at St Gregory's Priory and Cemetery (11 th to 16 th century AD) in Canterbury, England. Occlusal texture complexity surfaces of maxillary molars from juvenile skeletons (n=44) were examined to assess dietary hardness. Anisotropy values were calculated to reconstruct dietary toughness, as well as jaw movements during chewing. Evidence of weaning was sought, and variation in the physical properties of food was assessed against age and socioeconomic status. Results indicate that weaning had already commenced in the youngest children. Diet became tougher from four years of age, and harder from age six. Variation in microwear texture surfaces was related to historical textual evidence that refers to lifestyle developments for these age groups. Diet did not vary with socioeconomic status, which differs to previously reported patterns for adults. We conclude, microwear texture analyses can provide a non-destructive tool for revealing subtle aspects of childhood diet in the past.
This study conducted the first three dimensional microwear texture analysis of human deciduous teeth to reconstruct the physical properties of medieval childhood diet (age 1e8yrs) at St Gregory's Priory and Cemetery (11th to 16th century AD) in Canterbury, England. Occlusal texture complexity surfaces of maxillary molars from juvenile skeletons (n ¼ 44) were examined to assess dietary hardness. Anisotropy values were calculated to reconstruct dietary toughness, as well as jaw movements during chewing. Evidence of weaning was sought, and variation in the physical properties of food was assessed against age and socioeconomic status. Results indicate that weaning had already commenced in the youngest children. Diet became tougher from four years of age, and harder from age six. Variation in microwear texture surfaces was related to historical textual evidence that refers to lifestyle developments for these age groups. Diet did not vary with socioeconomic status, which differs to previously reported patterns for adults. We conclude, microwear texture analyses can provide a non-destructive tool for revealing subtle aspects of childhood diet in the past.
For Whom the Coin Tolls: Green Stained Teeth and Jaws In Medieval and Post-Medieval Spanish Burials
Occlusion-how the teeth fit together within and between the arches-has important consequences functionally and especially esthetically. Occlusal variation is considerable in modern westernized societies, but the occurrence and extent of the variation appear to be lower in the past and lower in non-westernized groups. This methodological paper describes several commonly-used variables that, collectively, characterize occlusal variation. Methods are described from the literature that measure the location and extent of tooth relations in all three planes of space. Our goal is that, by describing methods in a single source, it will pique the interest of dental researchers to collect these data, so that the space-time distributions of occlusal variations can be known in more detail.
This study conducted the first three dimensional microwear texture analysis of human deciduous teeth to reconstruct the physical properties of medieval childhood diet (age 1e8yrs) at St Gregory's Priory and Cemetery (11th to 16th century AD) in Canterbury, England. Occlusal texture complexity surfaces of maxillary molars from juvenile skeletons (n ¼ 44) were examined to assess dietary hardness. Anisotropy values were calculated to reconstruct dietary toughness, as well as jaw movements during chewing. Evidence of weaning was sought, and variation in the physical properties of food was assessed against age and socio-economic status. Results indicate that weaning had already commenced in the youngest children. Diet became tougher from four years of age, and harder from age six. Variation in microwear texture surfaces was related to historical textual evidence that refers to lifestyle developments for these age groups. Diet did not vary with socio-economic status, which differs to previously reported patterns for adults. We conclude, microwear texture analyses can provide a non-destructive tool for revealing subtle aspects of childhood diet in the past.
Dental wear quantity and direction in Chalcolithic and Medieval populations from southwest France
HOMO, 2017
Comparative Human Biology xxx (2016) xxx-xxx pour Les Treilles le haut niveau d'usure correspond à des aliments à la fois fibreux et résistantes. A Marsan, le niveau d'usure moins élevé était probablement du à la consommation de bouillies de céréales, nécessitant une moindre mastication. Cependant, la direction de l'usure est associée à plusieurs facteurs et peut être corrélée à des pratiques de subsistance mixte. Cette étude démontre la nécessité, de recherches supplémentaires, quant au processus complexe de mastication et d'une méthode standardisée pour examiner l'usure dentaire d'échantillons archéologiques.