Dear Umberto and everyone: I am not a pig expert, but somewhere I have heard
that in Roman times and earlier, people would drive their herds of pigs into
the woods, where the pigs would forage for acorns. Many kinds of oaks
produce acorns in boom-or-bust cycles, so that in some years there would be
the possibility that the pigs were eating almost nothing else. Now, if
acorns are rich in starches as well as oils and tannins, and also if when
chewed they moosh up into a kind of gummy paste that tends to stick to the
teeth, then I could believe a heavy-acorn diet might lead to periodontal
disease with its characteristic erosion of the enamel in a line just above
the gum.
A person might be able to corroborate this idea by comparing the incidence
of similar gum disease/caries (if any) among the California tribes who used
to subsist on acorns. Not to compare people to pigs, but what would the
difference really be to the life history of the teeth, before the advent of
the toothbrush?
Umberto, thanks to your published work and also a few things you've
mentioned here, I've been moved to take a closer look at the Vindolanda
pigs. No caries there that I can recall, and we know we had oak woodlands
nearby; so for this idea to be viable we would probably have to look at
"acorn mush" made from different species of oak. I can't believe the Romans
wouldn't utilize acorns for their pigs, if there was a flush year.
I wonder if there is a lab that would test acorns for starch content (i.e.
www.dairyone.com or the like) --?
-----Original Message-----
From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Umberto Albarella
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 5:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ZOOARCH] caries on pig teeth
Dear Zooarchers,
since a few people expressed an interest here are a couple of pictures of
the
pig teeth I mentioned in my previous email.See:
http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/icazForum/viewtopic.php?t=928
They come from the late Neolithic (c.mid 3rd mill cent cal BC) site of
Durrington Walls, southern Britain. Any comments welcome.
Cheers,
Umberto
--
Umberto Albarella
Department of Archaeology
University of Sheffield
Northgate House
West Street
Sheffield S1 4ET
United Kingdom
Telephone: (+) 44 (0) 114 22 22 943
Fax: (+) 44 (0) 114 27 22 563
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/albarella.html
For Archaeologists for Global Justice (AGJ) see:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/global-justice.html
"There is no way to peace. Peace IS the way".
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