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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