Patterns of dental enamel defects at ancient Mendes, Egypt

Abstract

The dental remains of 88 individuals from Old Kingdom, First Intermediate, and Greco-Roman periods at the ancient Egyptian site of Mendes (Tell er-Rub(c)a) were examined for dental enamel hypoplasia, and the results reported here provide some of the first comparative data on enamel defects in ancient Egypt. Overall, 48% of the individuals in the sample have one or more teeth with hypoplasia, with 17% of permanent teeth and 8% of deciduous teeth affected. The permanent teeth account for 87% of the total number of affected teeth, a prevalence over deciduous teeth that is significant at alpha = 0.05. Permanent and deciduous teeth display different patterns of hypoplasia, with the former exhibiting both discrete pitting and linear furrowing, and the latter exhibiting only pits. Teeth with linear defects significantly outnumber those with pits by a factor of more than three to one. Only permanent canines display more than one lesion on a tooth, with a mean of 1.4 defects per affected tooth. Although calculation of the age of insult from lesion position is imprecise, it appears that stress episodes occurred most commonly between approximately 3-5 years of age. The presence of pits in the deciduous dentition, however, suggests that physiological stresses began in utero. There is no statistically significant difference in the frequency of enamel defects between males and females. An observed decrease in the frequency of defects from the Old Kingdom period to the subsequent First Intermediate and Greco-Roman periods is not significant at alpha = 0.05, although such a decrease is expected given epigraphic and other data that refer to prolonged drought and malnutrition in the late Old Kingdom. The calculated chi(2) value of 3.83 is significant at the 0.10 level, however, and since our sample is rather small and the magnitude of the chi-square statistic is a function of sample size, we recommend that future research investigate further the relationship between the frequency of enamel defects and the time period in which they occur.

Entheseal changes in ancient Egyptians from the pyramid builders of Giza—Old Kingdom

“…Previous physical anthropological studies were carried out on Giza Necropolis skeletal materials to determine whether differences in skeletal remains reflect the socio‐economic division suggested by archaeological records. Analysis of dental enamel hypoplasia and growth arrest lines indicates that workers suffered more frequently from stress during growth and exhibited more developmental defects than high officials (Irish, ; Lovell & Whyte, ; Miller, ; Zaki, Hussien, & El Banna, ). Developmental defects are usually caused by poor nutrition, harsh life conditions, or extensively heavy labour, which is well explained by the socio‐economic division between the two socio‐economic classes.…”

Sex differences in linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) in early modern Japan

“…However, an investigation of sex differences in LEH for a particular period in Japan has not previously been reported. Research in other countries has produced contradictory results: higher prevalence in males (Van Gerven, et al, 1990;Saunders and Keenleyside, 1999;Palubeckaite, et al, 2002), higher prevalence in females (May et al, 1993;Slaus, 2000;King, et al, 2005), and no significant differences between the sexes (Goodman et al, 1980;Lanphear, 1990;Duray, 1996;Malville, 1997;Lovell and Whyte, 1999;Slaus, 2008).…”

Linear enamel hypoplasias as indicators of systemic physiological stress: Evidence from two known age‐at‐death and sex populations from postmedieval London

“…In recent years, numerous studies have focused on enamel hypoplasias as indicators of developmental disruption in past populations. Several different issues have been addressed, including the relationship between enamel defects and age at death (Cucina, 2000;Duray, 1996;Goodman et al, 1980;Malville, 1997;Palubeckaite et al, 2002;Saunders and Keenleyside, 1999;Š laus, 2000;Stodder, 1997), comparisons between males and females (Duray, 1996;Lanphear, 1990;Lovell and Whyte, 1999;Malville, 1997;Palubeckaite et al, 2002;Saunders and Keenleyside, 1999;Š laus, 2000;Van Gerven et al, 1990), comparisons between individuals of differing social status (Palubeckaite et al, 2002), comparison between population groups (Hutchinson and Larsen 1988;Keenleyside, 1998;Wood, 1996), diachronic change (Cucina, 1999;Goodman et al, 1980;Hutchinson and Larsen, 1988;Lovell and Whyte, 1999;Malville, 1997;Manzi et al, 1999;Š laus, 2000;Wright, 1997), and comparison between individuals with and without evidence of skeletal infection (Stodder, 1997).…”