Dental calculus (mineralized dental plaque) was first recognised as a potentially useful archaeological deposit in the 1970s, though interest in human dental calculus as a resource material has increased sharply in the past few years. The majority of recent research has focused on the retrieval of plant microfossils embedded in its matrix and interpretation of these finds as largely the result of deliberate consumption of plant-derived food. However, while most of the material described in published works does represent food, dental calculus is in fact a "depositional environment" as material can enter the mouth from a range of sources. In this respect, it therefore represents an archaeological deposit that can also contain extensive non-dietary debris. This can comprise a wide variety of cultural and environmental material which reaches the mouth and can become embedded in dental calculus through alternative pathways. Here, we explore the human behaviors and activities besides eating that can generate a flux of particles into the human mouth, the broad range of additional cultural and environmental information that can be obtained through the analysis and contextualisation of this material, and the implications of the additional pathways by which material can become embedded in dental calculus.
The differences found in the bilateral impact of age and body mass highlight the fact that the activity patterns of the individuals under examination must play an underlying role to EC expression, though current recording schemes for EC do not capture this, rendering further work in the direction of developing more elaborate recording standards imperative.
ObjectivesThe current paper explores the effectiveness of entheseal changes as skeletal activity markers by testing the correlation between such changes and cross-sectional geometric (CSG) properties while controlling for the effect of age and body size.
Materials and MethodsThe originality of the paper lies in capturing entheseal changes in a continuous quantitative manner using 3D microscopy. Roughness and bone resorption were recorded on zone 1 and 2 of three humeral entheses (subscapularis, supraspinatus, infraspinatus) in a documented sample of 29 male skeletons.
ResultsOur analysis found that merely 5.91% of the partial correlations between entheseal changes and CSG properties were statistically significant. In addition, two unexpected patterns were identified, namely a higher number of significant correlations on the left side entheses compared to the right side ones and a higher number of correlations between minimum roughness and CSG properties compared to mean and maximum roughness.
DiscussionThese patterns are the inverse of what we would expect if activity had exerted an important effect on entheseal change expression. Therefore, they support the lack of association between entheseal changes and habitual activity, even though various factors potentially affecting the above results are discussed.
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