Ancient dental calculus and diet

Dental calculus has been often considered as a consequence of dietary habits, mainly related to the post Neolitic agricultural development. The presence of fossilized bacteria in the Kebara 2 teeth, aged 60.000 years BP, and the similarity of oral pathologies in pre and post Neolithic samples confirm the multifactorial etiology of oral diseases in general and dental calculus in particular.     

河南荥阳官庄遗址两周时期人牙结石的植物淀粉粒

本文对河南官庄遗址两周时期人牙结石开展了淀粉粒分析,发现了数量丰富的淀粉粒以及少量植硅体。可鉴定形态的淀粉粒主要来自粟、黍、小麦、小豆等农作物以及坚果、块茎植物;植硅体中则有来自水稻颖片的双峰型植硅体。此次研究表明官庄先民食物来源广泛,包括多种农作物和采集植物,其中粟黍类农作物在食物构成中占据主要地位,而小麦所占比例很可能已仅次于粟黍。结合包括官庄遗址和周边若干遗址的浮选结果,两周时期中原腹心地区仍是北方传统的粟作农业,但农作物种植已明显多样化;与此同时,小麦在农作物体系中的重要性增加,中原地区农作物种植体系由以粟黍为主转向以小麦为主的趋势已经出现。     

A new era in palaeomicrobiology: prospects for ancient dental calculus as a long-term record of the human oral microbiome

The field of palaeomicrobiology is dramatically expanding thanks to recent advances in high-throughput biomolecular sequencing, which allows unprecedented access to the evolutionary history and ecology of human-associated and environmental microbes. Recently, human dental calculus has been shown to be an abundant, nearly ubiquitous, and long-term reservoir of the ancient oral microbiome, preserving not only microbial and host biomolecules but also dietary and environmental debris. Modern investigations of native human microbiota have demonstrated that the human microbiome plays a central role in health and chronic disease, raising questions about changes in microbial ecology, diversity and function through time. This paper explores the current state of ancient oral microbiome research and discusses successful applications, methodological challenges and future possibilities in elucidating the intimate evolutionary relationship between humans and their microbes.     

通过烟台午台遗址人牙结石淀粉粒探究人类对植物资源的利用

本研究通过对山东烟台市午台遗址人牙结石淀粉粒的分析,发现了来自禾本科的粟(Setaria italica L.)、小麦族(Triticeae)、壳斗科栎属(Quercus sp.)、豆科(Fabaceae)及块根块茎类植物的淀粉粒,数量较为丰富,种属来源较为多样,显示了午台遗址先民利用植物性食物资源的多样性。研究表明午台先民除了利用粟黍类农作物作为主要食物资源外,还广泛采集一些野生果类和块根块茎类作为食物的补充。本研究中发现了大遗存中没有发现的壳斗科栎属等,弥补了大遗存研究的不足。     

Evidence for long‐term migration on the Balkan Peninsula using dental and cranial nonmetric data: Early interaction between Corinth (Greece) and its colony at Apollonia (Albania)

This article seeks to identify “Greeks” and “non‐Greeks” in “mixed” mortuary contexts in a Greek colony. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that Illyrian and Greek individuals lived and were buried together at the Corinthian colony of Apollonia, Albania (established ca. 600 BC). The pattern of human biological interaction at Apollonia is tested by identifying variation in genetic relatedness using biodistance analysis of dental and cranial nonmetric traits for three sites: Apollonia (n = 116), its founder‐city Corinth (n = 69), and Lofkënd (n = 108), an inland site near Apollonia pre‐dating colonization. Logistic regression analysis estimates that individuals from colonial Apollonia are most closely related to prehistoric Illyrian populations (from Lofkënd and prehistoric Apollonia), rather than Greeks (from Corinth). The phenotypic similarity between colonial Apollonia and prehistoric Illyria suggests that there was a large Illyrian contribution to the gene pool at the colony of Apollonia. However, some trait combinations show low biological distances among all groups, suggesting homogeneity among Illyrian and Greek populations (assessed through pseudo‐Mahalanobis' D²). The degree of phenotypic similarity suggests shared ancestry and long‐term migration throughout these regions. The impacts of missing data and small sample sizes are also considered. Am J Phys Anthropol 153:236–248, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Testing the quality of nonadult Bayesian dental age assessment methods to juvenile skeletal remains: the Lisbon collection children and secular trend effects

Age estimation of nonadult skeletons from archaeological or forensic contexts has relied heavily on modern schedules of dental formation developed on samples of children of affluent populations. Although genetic factors have been considered to have had the greatest influence on population differences in dental development, increased interest has been placed on the role of environmental influences, such as differences in socioeconomic status and secular trends. This study evaluates the quality (i.e., accuracy and reliability) of two Bayesian dental age estimation methods to a sample of identified child skeletons from the Lisbon collection (20th century Portugal). The two Bayesian methods are developed on a reference sample of modern children from France, Ivory Coast, Iran, and Morocco. The test sample from Lisbon, compared to the reference sample, is separated by over 50 years of secular trends and comprises a lower socioeconomic segment. The two Bayesian methods show that the Lisbon children are consistently 1-year behind in dental age compared to the modern children of the reference sample. Environmental factors largely explain the differences between dental and chronological age in historic samples of nonadults.     

Dental caries prevalence as evidence for agriculture and subsistence variation during the Yayoi period in prehistoric Japan: biocultural interpretations of an economy in transition

The Yayoi period represents the earliest point of agricultural dependence in Japan, dating from approximately 2500 BP to AD 300. Yayoi period people consumed wet-rice as a primary subsistence base. This article uses dental caries prevalence to interpret the biocultural implications of agriculture among these people by testing the following hypotheses: 1) Yayoi period agriculturalists had greater frequencies of carious teeth than Jomon period foragers, 2) regional variation in carious tooth frequencies will be observed among Yayoi period agriculturalists, while 3) variation in carious tooth frequencies will be observed between male and female agriculturalists. Statistically significant differences in carious teeth were observed between the agriculturalists from Southern Honshu and all other samples. These differences suggest greater reliance on cariogenic plants among farmers from Southern Honshu and are consistent with an agricultural economy. The people of the Yayoi period from Tanegashima Island and Northern Kyushu did not have significantly different carious tooth frequencies compared to Jomon period foragers. This suggests that rice alone was not a more cariogenic dietary substance than those consumed by Jomon period foragers but a cariogenic food nonetheless. Dietary heterogeneity between the prehistoric people of the Yayoi period from Southern Honshu and those from Northern Kyushu and Tanegashima Island is also inferred from these differences. Significantly greater frequencies of carious teeth among older aged Yayoi period females compared with males suggest dietary differences between the sexes.