Plant microfossils in human dental calculus from Nemrik 9, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Northern Iraq

Abstract

Samples of dental calculus were taken from 11 human individuals buried at Nemrik 9, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Northern Iraq. All of them represented the time span of ca. 9100-8600 BP. In total, 95 microfossils were retrieved from these samples, including 70 phytoliths, 9 starch granules or clusters of starch, 3 pollens, and 1 xylem fragment. Most microfossils could be attributed to C 3 cool season cereals, most likely wheat and barley, which is consistent with previous knowledge about the composition of crops in early farming communities living in the Fertile Crescent. In addition, three phytoliths and one starch granule typical of C 4 warm season grasses were recovered including one subangular and faceted starch granule, which might derive from a native grass, but is not diagnostic of any genus. Prior to assigning diagnostic status to this starch, exhaustive reference work on native grass seeds is necessary. The presence of one Phragmites phytolith suggests non-alimentary processing of reeds using teeth or perhaps using the stem of this grass as a toothbrush or toothpick.

Environmental implications and evidence of natural products from dental calculi of a Neolithic–Chalcolithic community (central Italy)

“…2 K). As reported in literature 99 , no evidence of charring or burning may be attributed to this type of darkening colouring but, if so, it would suggest an involuntary inhalation of ash particles from trees or shrubs used for fire. Thus, this type of microremain could derive from both non-edible and edible plants.…”

A multidisciplinary approach for investigating dietary and medicinal habits of the Medieval population of Santa Severa (7th-15th centuries, Rome, Italy)

“…pollen grains), accidentally or intentionally inhalated/ingested during everyday activities (providing information on the surrounding environment) [27,36]. Dental calculus tends to be well preserved in archaeological contexts [34] and is increasingly recognised as a valuable resource to investigate past human diet and phytotherapeutic practices [22,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. The analysis of dental calculus was mainly performed by light microscopy (henceforth LM); only rarely gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry (henceforth GC-MS) and occasionally genetic techniques have been combined [20,22].…”

Who were the miners of Allumiere? A multidisciplinary approach to reconstruct the osteobiography of an Italian worker community

“…In order to remove any environmental contaminants from the calculus surface, samples were UV-treated for 10 minutes on each side and soaked in 5% sodium hypochlorite for 15 minutes. Lastly, the calculus was washed in sterilized bidistilled water and rinsed in 100% ethanol to eliminate the aqueous components before being left to dry [ 22 , 68 ]. To validate sterilization protocols, five dental calculus samples previously subjected to decontamination procedures, were randomly selected and washed with 200 μL of water.…”