A Detailed Analysis of the Dentition of Jamestown’s First Settlers

Summary

Archaeologists and an interdisciplinary team of researchers are studying the skull and dentition of a 15-year-old boy (1225B) who appears to have been the victim of a battle with Native Americans during the initial settlement at Jamestown in 1607. Specimens recovered from the boy’s teeth and jaws yield clues about diet and other aspects of daily life in the 17th century.Detailed study of the remains began with the morphological and temporal study of the skull and teeth using Cone-Beam computed tomography, intraoral radiography, micro computed tomography, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The exposed root canal of the mandibular left central incisor and nearby carious lesion provides a unique repository of particulate matter in the oral cavity and associated intra-alveolar periapical lesion. This research shows how advanced technologies can be used to characterize aspects of life and the disease state of skeletal remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Looking Back, Moving Forward: Reinterpreting Jamestown through Archaeology, History, Science, and Technology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 732