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Nava A, Lugli F, Lemmers S, Cerrito P, Mahoney P, Bondioli L, Müller W. Reading children's teeth to reconstruct life history and the evolution of human cooperation and cognition: The role of dental enamel microstructure and chemistry. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 163:105745. [PMID: 38825260 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2024] [Revised: 05/25/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 06/04/2024]
Abstract
Studying infants in the past is crucial for understanding the evolution of human life history and the evolution of cooperation, cognition, and communication. An infant's growth, health, and mortality can provide information about the dynamics and structure of a population, their cultural practices, and the adaptive capacity of a community. Skeletal remains provide one way of accessing this information for humans recovered prior to the historical periods. Teeth in particular, are retrospective archives of information that can be accessed through morphological, micromorphological, and biogeochemical methods. This review discusses how the microanatomy and formation of teeth, and particularly enamel, serve as archives of somatic growth, stress, and the environment. Examining their role in the broader context of human evolution, we discuss dental biogeochemistry and emphasize how the incremental growth of tooth microstructure facilitates the reconstruction of temporal data related to health, diet, mobility, and stress in past societies. The review concludes by considering tooth microstructure as a biomarker and the potential clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessia Nava
- Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, via Caserta 6, Rome 00161, Italy.
| | - Federico Lugli
- Institut of Geosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Department of Chemical and Geological Science, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Giuseppe Campi, 103, Modena 41125, Italy
| | - Simone Lemmers
- Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., AREA Science Park, s.s. 14 km 163,500, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA, USA; Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Paola Cerrito
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Patrick Mahoney
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Giles Ln, Giles Ln, Canterbury CT2 7NZ, UK
| | - Luca Bondioli
- Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padua, Piazza Capitaniato, 7, Padua 35139, Italy
| | - Wolfgang Müller
- Institut of Geosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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Extensive archaeobotanical data estimate carrying capacity, duration, and land use of the Late Bronze Age settlement site Březnice (Czech Republic). Sci Rep 2022; 12:20323. [PMID: 36434129 PMCID: PMC9700714 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24753-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2022] [Accepted: 11/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The reconstruction of the settlement´s hinterland and acquisition of plant resources is one of the crucial questions in the field of environmental archaeology. Our study is focused on the reconstruction of the settlement's structure and character of the environment from which the site drew resources. These research questions were addressed by the interpretation of plant macroremains, charcoals, and the results of the spatial model. We have focused on the maximum size of the settlement that the surrounding countryside was able to withstand. Our results clearly demonstrated significant deforestation and intensive land use in the vicinity of the Late Bronze Age study site. As the weed taxa showed, a wide range of crops was grown in rather dry or less often in damp fields. Based on our archaeobotanical results, we were able to reconstruct several types of grasslands: dry pastures and fallow fields on plateaus and slopes, wet pastures or meadows in the floodplain. Acidophilous oak forests, alluvial forests, and shrubs were reconstructed as the most common forest habitats in the vicinity of the study site. Based on the archaeological knowledge of the region, we assume relatively low population density during the Late Bronze Age, and thus only a small part of the more or less forested landscape was significantly affected by human activities.
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