Caries from a Museum Skeletal Collections

Author(s): Samuel Carreon; Rita Austin; Sabrina Sholts

Year: 2018

Summary

Studying teeth in museum archaeological collections allows us to address questions about diet, health, and the environment. One common health indicator is the rate and frequencies of in pathological indicators such as carious lesions (cavities) within a population. Changes in the amount of caries over time in a population show the changes in diet which may reflect cultural or environmental changes. Through museum collections we are able to look at caries and asses the relationship between oral pathologies and the environment. This presentation will discuss an effective example of collections based research to document the prevalence of carious lesions among ancient inhabitants of the Santa Barbara Channel region. Specifically, we aimed to build on previous research that showed prehistoric declines in the sexual differentiation and overall frequency of caries in the region, related to a dietary shift from terrestrial plants to marine animals. We found that over time there were less caries in the Santa Barbara Region hinting towards an increase in the dietary reliance of marine mammals. It is through the museum’s collections that we are able to conduct research on previous human populations and assess their health and diet.

Cite this Record

Caries from a Museum Skeletal Collections. Samuel Carreon, Rita Austin, Sabrina Sholts. Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC. 2018 ( tDAR id: 444128)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -168.574; min lat: 7.014 ; max long: -54.844; max lat: 74.683 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22699