Examining Dental Wear of Mongol Period Elites from Khövsgöl Province, Northern Mongolia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The purpose of this study is to explore the social status and daily lives of Mongol era (twelfth to fourteenth centuries CE) “common elites.” Common elite is a general term used in this region to describe a group of high-status people that were not in the immediate lineage of Chinggis Khan. We investigated whether cultural activities such as food preparation, food consumption, and occupational tasks were reflective in individuals’ dental wear patterns. The data presented in this study consists of skeletal material salvaged from looted and undisturbed tombs (N = 20) spanning across three mountainsides in Khövsgöl Province, Northern Mongolia. Tooth occlusal wear was scored using Smith’s (1984) crown scoring system. We hypothesize that the degree and location of dental wear may elucidate dietary and cultural practices including occupational activities. We will also investigate whether dental wear delineates occupational and dietary patterns pertaining to gender and age. Future work includes using dental and skeletal data from these field seasons along with previous excavations of ‘high-status elites’ from Khorig, Northern Mongolia to explore if differences in dental wear can be identified between these two groups.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38572.0