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The level of molar wear can be estimated reliably by measuring the cusp height. A correlation between age and the level of molar wear, expressed by a normalizing index (TWI) of cusp height, was found to exist in a sample of modern Igloolik Northwest Territories Eskimos. Not only was it possible to derive linear regression models to test the degree of correlation in the sample of 46 female and 39 male maxillary casts of Igloolik Eskimos, but the models were capable of accurately predicting the age of natives of the neighboring Hall Beach community. Sexual dimorphism in molar wear, perhaps attributable to differential bruxism, was demonstrated for the Igloolik sample. Based on the combined estimate of slopes for each maxillary molar pair for females and males, it was discovered that the male maxillary molars are worn approximately 30% more rapidly than female maxillary molars.

A small collection of gravers from the Fisher site, an Early Paleoindian (Parkhill complex) site in Ontario estimated to date between 10,400 and 11,000 years B.P., produced two previously unrecognized tool types: single- and double-scribe compass and coring gravers. Experimental use-wear studies on replicated tools confirm that the compass and coring gravers were probably used on organic materials for engraving single or concentric circles, cutting thin disks, and boring holes. Although not identified as such, the compass graver occurs widely in North American Paleoindian assemblages and, judging from the presence and context of similar tools in the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic and Siberian Neolithic, may represent a specialized tool designed to express decorative, artistic, or symbolic aspects of Paleoindian culture. Together with other tools in Paleoindian assemblages, the new tool types promise to contribute to comparative studies concerned with the origin, development, and spread of Paleoindian cultures.

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