Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - Dental Buccal Microwear of the Medieval Population from Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic
AU  - Jarošová I
Y1  - 2007
VL  - 45
IS  - 1
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 71
EP  - 80
KW  - Buccal Dental Microwear
KW  - Diet
KW  - SEM
KW  - Dolní Věstonice
KW  - Czech Republic
N2  - 
N2  - Dental microwear analyses have shown to reflect important information concerning diet in bioarchaeological populations. By assuming a correlation between ingested diet and microwear patterns on the enamel surface of teeth and quantifying enamel microwear, diet can be reconstructed. Buccal dental microwear analysis was carried out on a sample of 62 individuals from Dolní Věstonice - Na Pískách site, and 36 individuals from Dolní Věstonice - Vysoká zahrada site, Czech Republic. The former population is dated to the early medieval period (late 8th - mid-11th century AD), thus this sample has been associated with Old-Slavonic population, and the latter falls into the 12th century AD. For each individual negative and positive replicas of molars and premolars' buccal surface were made, and subsequently analysed in secondary electrons of scanning electron microscopy. The length, orientation and number of all observed striations in a 0.56 mm2 square surface area were quantified using SigmaScan Pro 5.0, image analysis software. Ultimately, obtained results were compared with published datasets acquired from studying various modern hunter-gatherers, pastoral, and agricultural populations with different dietary habits (Lalueza et al. 1996). The analysis yielded a distinct microwear pattern for both Dolní Věstonice populations. The density and the length of microstriations showed inter-group sex and age related variability in the 9th century AD, which presumably resulted from a different ratio of meat intake and vegetal meals. These differences in dietary habits did not endure in this site till the 12th century, when agricultural resources and food preparation technology were probably on higher level that required no more social stratification.
ER  -