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There is a high correlation between the rate of dental attrition and the physical consistency of the diet. Hypotheses concerning types of diet and methods of food preparation in prehistoric populations may therefore be tested by comparing attrition rates in the specimens under investigation with standards derived from groups of known dietary status. For such comparisons the age factor is of paramount importance, but difficult to assess accurately in fragmentary skeletal material. The use of attrition gradients rather than mean attrition scores provides a n age independent method for comparison of attrition rates. When Natufian specimens from three different sites (Kebara, El Wad and Eynan) were compared by this method, significant differences in the gradient of attrition were found at one site, Kebara. The incidences of caries and periodontal disease were also lower at this site, and taken in conjunction with the low level of attrition were considered to relate to differences in the vegetable content of the diet between the individuals recovered from Kebara and those recovered from El Wad and Eynan.Investigations into the dietary status of prehistoric populations involve the exploration of many different lines of research. Human skeletal remains, when present, afford a good primary source of information regarding nutritional status, while the dentition can provide more detailed information regarding both carbohydrate content and physical consistency of the diet (Davies, '63; Kreshover and McClure, '66).Caries, attrition and periodontal disease result in permanent lesions of the hard tissues of the teeth and supporting bone (table 1). Direct comparisons can therefore be made between the pattern of dental disease in skeletal populations and that of extant groups of known dietary status, providing that due allowance is made for the effect of variables such as differences in tooth structure and age of specimens examined.In the case of attrition, the major component of tooth wear, the age-attrition correlation is especially high. Tooth wear takes place as a result of mechanical friction of the tooth. It is thus primarily a function of age and diet, although the rate and pattern of wear may be secondarily affected by differences in tooth struc-AM. J. PHYS. ANTHROP.. 37: 233-238. ture, jaw relationship, chewing patterns and cultural habits (Smith, '72).Differences in tooth structure as well as non-dietary factors producing attrition can usually be identified by careful examination of the teeth. Age estimations for adult skeletal material are, however, more difficult. The usual range of accuracy claimed is from five to ten years (Krogman, 'SZ), and in individuals with a rapid rate of attrition such a range may bias the findings considerably.For example, in a recent study of different communities in Israel, we found that the attrition score more than doubled between the 20 and 40-year age groups in Bedouin who show a high rate of attrition. In Fellahin with a less abrasive diet, it increased by half this amount ov...

This study presents a description and comparative analysis of Middle Pleistocene permanent and deciduous teeth from the site of Qesem Cave (Israel). All of the human fossils are assigned to the Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex (AYCC) of the late Lower Paleolithic. The Middle Pleistocene age of the Qesem teeth (400-200 ka) places them chronologically earlier than the bulk of fossil hominin specimens previously known from southwest Asia. Three permanent mandibular teeth (C(1) -P(4) ) were found in close proximity in the lower part of the stratigraphic sequence. The small metric dimensions of the crowns indicate a considerable degree of dental reduction although the roots are long and robust. In contrast, three isolated permanent maxillary teeth (I(2) , C(1) , and M(3) ) and two isolated deciduous teeth that were found within the upper part of the sequence are much larger and show some plesiomorphous traits similar to those of the Skhul/Qafzeh specimens. Although none of the Qesem teeth shows a suite of Neanderthal characters, a few traits may suggest some affinities with members of the Neanderthal evolutionary lineage. However, the balance of the evidence suggests a closer similarity with the Skhul/Qafzeh dental material, although many of these resemblances likely represent plesiomorphous features.

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-Clinical studies carried out on dentin thickness in adults, as well as experimental studies carried out on ovariectomized animals, indicate that odontoblast activity, like that of osteoblastic cells, differs in the two sexes. To examine the evidence for differences in odontoblast activity before puberty, we have measured dentin thickness and other crown dimensions from bitewing radiographs of the lower first molars in 240 children aged 4-16 years. The radiographs were obtained from pedodontic clinics throughout Israel. Only teeth without caries or fillings were used, and the study population had minimal attrition. The results showed that dentin thickness, measured on the roof of the pulp chamber, was significantly greater in boys than in girls at all ages, and that the differences increased during puberty. The differences remained highly significant even when standardized for crown size. They demonstrate that dimorphism in dentin thickness is present even in the earliest stages of odontogenesis and increase with puberty.

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The Greeks and Romans reproached the Phoenicians for the sacrifice of infants, and the excavation of cremated infants at 'Tophets' (named after the sacrificial site in Jerusalem mentioned in the Bible) seems to bear this out. However, the argument for infant sacrifice depends largely on a skewed age profile, and age is not easy to determine. The authors approach this problem with a battery of new techniques, showing that in the Tophet of Carthage the majority of the infants died between one and one and a half months. Sacrifice was thus very probable.

Abstract. The role that climate and environmental history may have played in influencing human evolution has been the focus of considerable interest and controversy among paleoanthropologists for decades. Prior attempts to understand the environmental history side of this equation have centered around the study of outcrop sediments and fossils adjacent to where fossil hominins (ancestors or close relatives of modern humans) are found, or from the study of deep sea drill cores. However, outcrop sediments are often highly weathered and thus are unsuitable for some types of paleoclimatic records, and deep sea core records come from long distances away from the actual fossil and stone tool remains. The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) was developed to address these issues. The project has focused its efforts on the eastern African Rift Valley, where much of the evidence for early hominins has been recovered. We have collected about 2 km of sediment drill core from six basins in Kenya and Ethiopia, in lake deposits immediately adjacent to important fossil hominin and archaeological sites. Collectively these cores cover in time many of the key transitions and critical intervals in human evolutionary history over the last 4 Ma, such as the earliest stone tools, the origin of our own genus Homo, and the earliest anatomically modern Homo sapiens. Here we document the initial field, physical property, and core description results of the 2012-2014 HSPDP coring campaign.