Is it health or the burial environment: differentiating between hypomineralised and post-mortem stained enamel in an archaeological context.

ABSTRACT: Developmental enamel defects are often used as indicators of general health in past archaeological populations. However, it can be difficult to macroscopically distinguish subtle hypomineralised opacities from post-mortem staining, unrelated to developmental defects. To overcome this difficulty, we have used non-destructive x-ray microtomography to estimate the mineral density of enamel. Using a sample of deciduous teeth from a prehistoric burial site in Northeast Thailand, we demonstrate that it is possible to determine whether observed enamel discolourations were more likely to be true hypomineralised lesions or artefacts occurring as the result of taphonomic effects. The analyses of our sample showed no evidence of hypomineralised areas in teeth with macroscopic discolouration, which ha

SUBMITTER: McKay S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3667180 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature