Along the same lines, care should be taken not to clean out (or
inadvertently let spill out) any material that may be lodged between teeth
or in teeth. Where there is malocclusion which involves widening of the
interproximal spaces, I've seen food material lodged between and preserved
right along with the jaw -- and of course, this provides direct evidence
of what the animal had been dieting on. More subtle was a discovery of
Idaho State Univ. paleontologist Bill Ackerston, that horse, cattle, and
camel teeth (that have deep fossettes) often have those fossettes packed
with finely comminuted feed material which can be picked out and analyzed,
and again is direct evidence of the animal's diet. -- Deb Bennett
> Hello zooarchers!
>
> Recently I worked with animal bones from an hillfort (Migration Period) in
> Sweden that was excavated during the 60th Century. Thankfully the bone
> material was not cleaned. The material includes pig jaws. Some of the
> teeth had dental calculus that gives us interesting information about
> animal husbandry. Once the calculus dries it is extremely fragile and
> easily falls apart if you start to clean with water and brush. Perhaps
> this is not a problem for zooarchaeologists but if animal bones are
> cleaned by an archaeologist not familiar with animal pathology and tooth
> infections etc this kind of information could easily be lost.
>
> Tips on articles that deals with similiar question as Adler et als
> "Sequencing ancient calcified dental plaque shows changes in oral
> microbiota with dietary shifts of the Neolithic and Industrial
> revolutions" are most welcome...
>
>
> With best regards,
> Ylva Telldahl
>
>
>
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