Teeth are one of the best sources of evidence for both identification and studies of demography, biological relationships and health in ancient human communities. This text introduces the complex biology of teeth and provides a practical guide to the: • excavation, cleaning, storage and recording of dental remains • identification of human teeth including those in a worn or fragmentary state • methods for studying variation in tooth morphology • study of microscopic internal and external structure of dental tissues, and methods of age-determination • estimation of age-at-death from dental development, tooth wear and dental histology • recording of dental disease in archaeological and museum collections Dental Anthropology is the text for students and researchers in anthropology and archaeology, together with others interested in dental remains from archaeological sites, museum collections or forensic cases.

The defects of enamel hypoplasia can be related to the layered structure of enamel which represents the sequence of development in tooth crowns. From such studies, it is possible to see that furrow-type enamel defects (the most common form of hypoplasia seen with the naked eye) are just the most prominent expression of a continuum which extends ever smaller, down to a microscopic disturbance to a single layer in the crown formation sequence. Furthermore, the progressive decrease in spacing between development layers which occurs down the crown sides, from occlusal to cervical, affects both the prominence and apparent width of the defects. This makes it difficult to use measurements as a means of estimating the duration of the disturbance causing a particular defect. The difficulty is even greater for the less common pitted or exposed-plane-type defects, for which the apparent width bears very little relationship with the duration of the growth disturbance. The defects of enamel hypoplasia can therefore be understood clearly only when examined under the microscope in relation to the structures which mark the development sequence of the tooth crown.

Tooth Development in Human Evolution and Bioarchaeology Humans grow at a uniquely slow pace compared with other mammals. When and where did this schedule evolve? Have technological advances, farming and cities had any effect upon it? Addressing these and other key questions in palaeoanthropology and bioarchaeology, Simon Hillson examines the unique role of teeth in preserving detailed microscopic records of development throughout childhood and into adulthood. The text critically reviews theory, assumptions, methods and literature, providing the dental histology background to anthropological studies of both growth rate and growth disruption. Chapters also examine existing studies of growth rate in the context of human evolution and primate development more generally, together with implications for life history. The fi nal chapters consider how defects in the tooth development sequence shed light on the consequences of biological and social transitions, contributing to our understanding of the evolution of modern human development and cognition.

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Most archaeological and fossil teeth are heavily worn, and this greatly limits the usefulness of tooth crown diameter measurements, as they are usually defined at the widest points of the crown. There are alternatives, particularly measurements at the cervix of the tooth, where the crown joints the root, and measurements along a diagonal axis in molars, that are much less affected by wear. These would allow a wider range of specimens to be included, e.g., in the study of dental reduction in Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Homo sapiens. In addition, they would allow the little-worn teeth of children to be compared directly with well-worn teeth in adults. These alternatives, however, have been little used, and as yet there have not been any studies of the repeatability with which they can be measured, or of the extent to which they are related to the more usual crown diameters. The present study is based on a group of unworn teeth, where direct comparisons could be made between the alternative measurements, which are not much affected by wear, with the usual crown diameters, which are very much affected. In an interobserver-error study of this material, cervical and diagonal measurements could be recorded as reliably as the usual crown diameters. The buccolingual cervical measurement was strongly correlated with the normal bucclingual crown diameter in all teeth, whereas the mesiodistal cervical measurement was highly correlated with the normal mesiodistal crown diameter in incisors and canines, but less so in premolars and molars. The molar diagonal measurements showed high correlations with all other measurements. Crown areas (robustness index) calculated from the usual diameters were strongly correlated with crown areas calculated from cervical measurements, and crown areas calculated from molar diagonals were strongly correlated with both other areas. Despite the long usage of the more usual maximum crown diameters, the alternative dental measurements could be measured just as reliably, could record similar information about tooth crown size, and would be better measures for the worn dentitions seen in archaeological and fossil material.