Dental Therapeutics in the Maya Region: New Evidence for Caries Manipulation and Dental Drilling

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Intentional dental modification for aesthetic purposes relating to personal ornamentation and social identity have been widely documented in the Maya region in the form of dental filing and labial drilling for dental inlays. Dental modifications for therapeutic purposes, however, are rarely documented. Though rare, evidence for chipping, scraping, and drilling in and around dental caries have been documented in European Neolithic contexts, precolonial contexts in the southwestern and southeastern United States, and in precolonial contexts in Mesoamerica and South America. These findings suggest the presence of a tradition of complex dental therapeutics in those regions. This paper reports on the first two cases of therapeutic drilling documented in the Maya region from the sites of Seibal, Guatemala and Actun Uayazba Kab, Belize. Both of these instances were observed in previously studied curated archaeological collections using high-powered digital microscopy. These findings are considered in their respective biosocial contexts and presented as important evidence for ancient Maya therapeutics, complementary to the rich tradition of aesthetic dental modification that existed in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37588.0