Incidence of caries and abscesses in archeological Eskimo skeletal samples from point hope and Kodiak Island, Alaska

Costa, Raymond L.

doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330520407

Cited by 58 publications

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“…The absence or low prevalence of caries in these populations had been attributed to attrition-related elimination of the caries-prone areas, as well as to the specific diet, which lacks refined sugars and starches (Keenleyside 1998). On the other hand, the high prevalence of caries (14.4%) in the Ipiutak sample from Point Hope has been related to dietary specialization; this population mostly subsisted on caribou, and to a lesser degree on marine mammals (Costa 1980b;Oxenham and Matsumura 2008).The pathologic pocket in the D2735 mandible is likely a result of repeated toothpicking between RM1/RM2, which compromised the mucosal surface of the gingival sulcus. This lesion opened a path for microorganisms, provoking the detachment of the periodontal ligament, a spread of the infection, and the resorption of the interdental alveolar crest (Fig.…”

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Comparative analysis of dentognathic pathologies in the Dmanisi mandibles

Margvelashvili

Zollikofer

Lordkipanidze

et al. 2016

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: Due to the scarcity of the fossil record, in-vivo changes in the dentognathic system of early Homo are typically documented at the level of individual fossil specimens, and it remains difficult to draw population-level inferences about dietary habits, diet-related activities and lifestyle from individual patterns of dentognathic alterations. The Plio-Pleistocene hominin sample from Dmanisi (Georgia), dated to 1.77 million years ago, offers a unique opportunity to study in-vivo changes in the dentognathic system of individuals belonging to a single paleodeme of early Homo. Materials and Methods: We analyze dentognathic pathologies in the Dmanisi sample, and in comparative samples of modern Australian and Greenlander hunter-gatherer populations, applying clinical protocols of dentognathic diagnostics. Results: The Dmanisi hominins exhibit a similarly wide diversity and similar incidence of dentognathic pathologies as the modern human hunter-gatherer population samples investigated here. Dmanisi differs from the modern population samples in several respects: At young age tooth wear is already advanced, and pathologies are more prevalent. At old age, hypercementosis is substantial. Discussion: Results indicate that dentognathic pathologies and disease trajectories are largely similar in early Homo and modern humans, but that the disease load was higher in early Homo, probably as an effect of higher overall stress on the dentognathic system. Key words: aging, tooth wear, caries, periodontitisThe Plio-Pleistocene site of Dmanisi has yielded a large sample of hominin fossils associated with abundant and diverse faunal remains and Mode I stone artifacts (Gabunia et al. 2001;Ferring et al. 2011;Mgeladze et al. 2011). Occupation of the site began shortly after 1.85 Ma. The fossil hominin finds are dated to 1.77 Ma (Ferring et al. 2011). Dmanisi thus represents the earliest evidence of Homo outside of Africa. The well-preserved cranial, mandibular and postcranial remains of five individuals are unique in offering detailed insights into patterns of morphological variation within a paleodeme of early Homo, and into patterns of growth and aging Margvelashvili et al. 2013;Zollikofer et al. 2014). The craniomandibular morphology of the Dmanisi paleodeme has been described previously (Gabunia and Vekua 1995;Gabunia et al. 2000;Gabunia et al. 2001;Gabounia et al. 2002;Lordkipanidze et al. 2005;Lordkipanidze et al. 2006;Rightmire et al. 2006;Rightmire and Lordkipanidze 2010;Lordkipanidze et al. 2013;Margvelashvili et al. 2013). Cranial and mandibular morphological variation within the Dmanisi paleodeme is wide, but well within the range of variation seen in modern humans populations, and in populations of chimpanzee subspecies (Skinner et al. 2006;Lordkipanidze et al. 2013;Margvelashvili et al. 2013;Zollikofer et al. 2014). Variation in size, shape and dentognathic features among the Dmanisi mandibles has received special attention and has been studied to address questions of phylogeny, taxonomy, sexual dimorphism, die...

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confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of dentognathic pathologies in the Dmanisi mandibles

Margvelashvili

Zollikofer

Lordkipanidze

et al. 2016

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…Individual sex estimations were obtained from museum records or previous studies of the same collections, when available Ruff, 2004, 2006;Costa, 1977;GenetVarcin, 1949; Goldman Data Set: http://web.utk.edu/~auerbach/GOLD.htm; Trezenem, 1940). Otherwise, one of the authors, A.R., used cranial and mandibular characteristics (Buikstra and Ubelaker, 1994) to estimate the sex.…”

Section: Insert Table 1 About Herementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Diet: meat-based. Sexual division of labor: strong but not focused on subsistence (men are the only food providers; Costa, 1977;Tomenchuk and Mayhall, 1979). M a n u s c r i p t 7 Dietary differences: low (Costa, 1977).…”

Section: Dealing With Age Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many hunter-gatherer groups, anterior dentition is often used in various paramasticatory actions, resulting in more pronounced wear. According to Costa (1977), posterior teeth are more involved in grinding and chewing actions related to food processing, rather than other cultural practices not related to food processing. Consequently, the lack of sexual differences in dental wear in the studied populations suggests that the diets of the two sexes do not differ sufficiently to produce a substantial variation in dentin exposure.…”

Section: Sexual Dimorphismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Agta are the indigenous inhabitants of the Philippine islands and are typical representatives of the hunting-gathering lifestyle, with a diet based on hunted meat and gathered wild fruits and other plants (Estiko-Griffin and Griffin, 1981;Minter, 2010). Inuit are arctic hunters, basing their subsistence exclusively on sea mammals' meat eaten raw, A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 15 frozen, or dry (Costa, 1977;Larsen and Rainey, 1948;Tomenchuk and Mayhall, 1979).…”

Section: Intergroup Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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First molar size and wear within and among modern hunter-gatherers and agricultural populations

Górka

Romero

Pérez‐Pérez

2015

HOMO

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Please cite this article as: Górka, K., Romero, A., Pérez-Pérez, A.,First molar size and wear within and among modern hunter-gatherers and agricultural populations, Journal of Comparative Human Biology (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.jchb.2015.02.007 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. AbstractApart from reflecting modern human dental variation, differences in dental size among populations provide a means for studying continuous evolutionary processes and their mechanisms. Dental wear, on the other hand, has been widely used to infer dietary adaptations and variability among or within diverse ancient human populations. Few such studies have focused on modern foragers and farmers, however, and diverse methods have been used. This research aimed to apply a single, standardized, and systematic quantitative procedure to measure dental size and dentin exposure in order to analyze differences among several hunter-gatherer and agricultural populations from various environments and geographic origins. In particular, we focused on sexual dimorphism and intergroup differences in the upper and lower first molars. Results indicated no sexual dimorphism in molar size and wear within the studied populations. Despite the great ethnographic variation in subsistence strategies among these populations, our findings suggest that differences in sexual division of labor do not affect dietary wear patterns.

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Skeletal evidence of health and disease in pre-contact Alaskan Eskimos and Aleuts

Keenleyside

1998

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

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There have been relatively few paleopathological studies of arctic populations to date, compared to other regions of North America. Studies aimed at elucidating patterns of health and disease in arctic peoples prior to contact and assessing inter- and intraregional differences in disease patterns have been particularly few. In the present study, five pre-contact skeletal samples (N = 193), representing 4 Eskimo populations from northern coastal Alaska and 1 Aleut population from the eastern Aleutian Islands, were examined macroscopically for the following indicators of health status: cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, trauma, infection, dental caries, abscesses, antemortem tooth loss, periodontal disease, and dental attrition. In addition, archeological and epidemiological data were used to help reconstruct the health of these populations. The goals of the analysis were 2-fold: 1) to assess the pre-contact health of North Alaskan Eskimos and Aleuts in order to provide a baseline comparison for the post-contact health of these groups, and 2) to determine if any differences in disease patterns exist between the Eskimos and Aleuts that might be related to differences in their physical environment, subsistence patterns, and cultural practices. The analysis revealed that both groups suffered from a variety of health problems prior to contact, including iron deficiency anemia, trauma, infection, and various forms of dental pathology. Statistical comparisons of the 2 groups revealed that Eskimos and Aleuts had different patterns of health and disease prior to contact. Most notably, the Aleuts had a significantly higher frequency of cranial trauma and infracranial infection than the Eskimos, while the latter had a significantly higher frequency of enamel hypoplasia. An examination of the physical and cultural environment of the 2 groups reveals several possible explanations for these differences, including warfare, subsistence pursuits, and housing practices. The documentation of these differences indicates that variability in pre-contact disease patterns can be identified between hunter-gatherer populations living in similar environments and exhibiting similar general lifestyles.

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Incidence of caries and abscesses in archeological Eskimo skeletal samples from point hope and Kodiak Island, Alaska

Cited by 58 publications

References 22 publications

Comparative analysis of dentognathic pathologies in the Dmanisi mandibles

Comparative analysis of dentognathic pathologies in the Dmanisi mandibles

First molar size and wear within and among modern hunter-gatherers and agricultural populations

Skeletal evidence of health and disease in pre-contact Alaskan Eskimos and Aleuts

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