Above: Monte do Vale do Ouro 2 mandibular lateral (second) incisors. Large grooves are visible along lingual surface just below the crown. Scale increments are 1 mm.
The interpretation of the grooves was rather straightforward, since I was already familiar with some great previously published images—one featured the iconic photograph of "The Spinner" by Eugene Smith from a 1951 issue of LIFE magazine. I did a little searching of my own and was surprised to find a wealth of additional examples in the form of portraits and images in various publications from the 1800's and early 1900's wetting and hand spinning flax fibers (see below). This behavior, or similar behaviors relating to the manipulation of fibers, yarn, cordage, etc. across the surfaces of teeth provide good analogies for what may have created the deep grooves on the prehistoric teeth from Monte do Vale do Ouro 2. On a side note, it was fun to cite some artwork and the Brothers Grimm fairy tales! Above: Examples of flax wetting and hand spinning depicted in popular culture. Top left: Bien lo hilan (“They spin well” [1807-1845]) by Leonardo Alenza y Nieto (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/334953, CC0 1.0). Top right: Velha Fiando (“Old Spinner” [1904]) by José Malhoa (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Velha_Fiando_(1904)_-_Jos%C3%A9_Malhoa.png, Public Domain). Bottom: The Three Spinsters (1886) by Walter Crane in Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19068, Public Domain). What I considered even more amazing was that Alice Bernardo of Saber Fazer had made videos of contemporary women demonstrating the process of wetting and hand spinning flax fibers (see below). These examples provide plausible analogies for the types of behaviors that may have contributed to the formation of the wear and grooves documented in the Bronze Age individual from Monte do Vale do Ouro 2. We are not proposing that we have direct evidence of flax spinning/wetting by any means, but it is quite likely that our case study illustrates a prehistoric example of using the teeth to manipulate some kind of pliable cordage, yarn, or fibrous material in ways that are similar to the historic and contemporary examples we cite. Above: Sequence of video stills of a woman spinning flax, approximately 3-4 seconds. Note slightly oblique, mediolateral guiding of flax fibers. Stills originate from video by Alice Bernardo (https://www.saberfazer.org/), used with permission. The original video can be streamed here. Above: Woman wetting flax fibers while hand spinning. Photographs by Alice Bernardo (https://www.saberfazer.org/), used with permission. The original video can be streamed here. The take away from the study of the two Bronze Age teeth from Monte do Vale do Ouro 2 is that they represent the embodiment of past human behaviors related to craft production. The depth of the grooves indicates that the individual also engaged in the behaviors that formed the grooves over a considerable period of their life. While there was an absence of grave goods, and not much other archaeological context to use to understand the life of this individual, these two little teeth provide significant insights into the social identity and lifeways of at least one individual from Monte do Vale do Ouro 2. References and further reading: Special note of thanks: Alice Bernardo of Saber Fazer allowed the use of images taken from videos she produced of the two women ("fiandeiras") spinning flax in the pictures above. I am extremely grateful for the privilege to use these images. The Saber Fazer website is truly a wonderful resource for those interested in traditions of craft production—especially archaeologists!
This study:
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I had the opportunity contribute to two articles for a special issue of Quaternary International entitled "Not Only Use" that was edited by Juan Luis Fernández-Marchena, Lena Asryan, Antonella Pedergnana, and Andreu Ollé. The issue contains an impressive overview various methodologies used to study wear the burgeoning interest in multidisciplinary efforts to study wear traces (i.e., traceology) of different origins and the processes (i.e., operative chains) involved in manufacture, use, and abandonment of an object that is later recovered by an archaeologist (check out the editorial by Fernández-Marchena et al. for more info). The first article was lead by Raquel Hernando. In short, Hernando was interested in understanding if recent advances in optical microscopy could resurrect its use for the study of human dental microwear. Hernando noted that dental microwear analyses originally used optical microscopy, but it was later replaced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Eventually confocal microscopy became the favored technology for occlusal dental microwear analysis (i.e., dental microwear texture analysis, or "DMTA"), while SEM is still preferred for buccal microwear analysis. However, Hernando and colleagues note that SEM analyses are costly (we generally pay by the hour to use these microscopes) and the postprocessing of images is also quite time consuming (and exhausting for your eyes!). DMTA is generally quicker, but the microscopes—and software needed for DMTA—is not nearly as widely accessible as SEM. That means costly travel, lodging, and user fees to do DMTA analyses for many of us without local access to equipment. So, why not revisit optical microscopy? Hernando and colleagues point to many advances in optical microscopy that have been explored in the context of traceology. Buccal microwear seemed like the best place to start since it still widely uses SEM. Hernando and colleagues found that OM produces very similar results to traditional SEM methods whether one studies the original tooth or a dental cast of a tooth (see image below). Above: Comparison of scanning electron (SEM) and optical microscopy (OM) images of buccal microwear. Note the excellent resolution in OM. Raquel Hernando and colleagues noted that optical microscopy provides many other advantages over traditional SEM analysis: less expensive equipment with less associated maintenance, wider accessibility of optical microscopes for researchers, less eye fatigue, greater image resolution, 3D appearance of images with greater definition, and relatively quick data acquisition and analysis. A drawback is the need to build up open-access databases for comparitive purposes, but the data produced in this paper marks the beginning of that effort. This study points out the importance of revisiting methodologies with a critical eye, but also how interdisciplinary research—something IPHES takes great pride in—can lead to innovation in allied fields of research. The second article explored the use of gigapixel-like (GPL) images for studying external surfaces of teeth. GPL images make use focus-stacking (extended focus images) and panoramic stitching of microscopic images to create mosaic images with high depth of field using SEM. This “gigapixel-like” (GPL) imaging strategy can be used to create multiscale, high-resolution images of entire, or partial, dental surfaces that can be viewed from a field of view that encompasses an entire tooth surface to high magnification views of dental microstructure, microwear, taphonomic features, among other features. The images have a variety of uses from the communication of results in scientific publications to their use in interactice museum displays and websites or training researchers. Above: simplified outline of focus-stacking and creation of image mosaic to create a gigapixel-like (GPL) image. Above: A GPL image (center) with call-out boxes of varying magnification that indicate different surface features. Descriptions proceed clockwise from upper right corner. Orange rectangle: Medium size antemortem enamel chip with well-worn margins. Green rectangle: Detail of cementoenamel junction and root surface. Subtle perikymata (bottom left quadrant) and striations (upper left quadrant) are visible on the enamel. Subtle postmortem cracking of root surface also evident. Magenta rectangle: Detail of furrow-form hypoplasia with clearly visible perikymata (between white arrows). Black arrow points to dental calculus deposit. White rectangle: Detail of instrumental striation with a right oblique orientation. Blue rectangle: arrows indicate microstriations on labioincisal edge and a well-worn, but small, antemortem enamel chip to the left of the image. While the goal of the publication was to outline the GPL methodology and uses, we also made an interesting discovery from the creation of a GPL image for one of the teeth from the Chalcolithic context (dated to about 4000 years before present) of El Mirador Cave near Burgos, Spain. We found that at least one tooth exhibited a strange discoloration when viewed with the naked eye (see photo below). Microscopic examination revealed that the discoloration is related to enamel erosion—something that is rarely documented in prehistoric contexts. Above: Photo of original tooth with discolored (yellowish) enamel surface. GPL image sampling indicated by black box and GPL image indicated by orange arrow. Zooming in on section 300x shows "honey-comb" appearance of enamel surface. This indicates erosion of the enamel. This study makes me suspect that erosion in teeth from archaeological contexts is much higher than we currently acknowledge, and calls for a need for detailed analyses of the original teeth in conjunction with high magnification analysis for definitive diagnosis. Nonetheless, this is a very interesting (and rather accidental) discovery. More analyses of the El Mirador material are underway. References and further reading These studies:
Additional references:
There is a deep history of archaeological investigation focusing on the Bronze Age El Argar, or Argaric, cultural phenomenon from southeastern Spain. Argaric archaeology is probably most famous for the elaborate settlement structures, well-preserved burials, and evidence for sophisticated metallurgy and material culture. The rich archaeological record and excellent preservation of human remains have provided archaeologists with incredible resources for reconstructing the lifeways of these Bronze Age peoples. Above Left: view of the site of Castellón Alto. By Rafael Jiménez from Córdoba, España - Castellon Alto 2, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21664792. Above Right: examples of grave goods recovered from an Argaric context. By Luis Siret - Siret, H., and Louis Siret (1887). «Les premiers âges du métal dans le sud-est de l'Espagne». Anvers., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1294319 I was recently involved in a collaborative research project on the human remains from the site of Castellón Alto that focused on the dental remains of the individuals buried at the site. As part of his Ph.D. research on the human remains from the site, Àngel Rubio discovered an interesting trend at the site: of the 106 burials examined, the teeth of 5 individuals showed atypical patterns of dental wear (see below). What was even more astounding was that each of those individuals was female. No males had these interesting patterns of wear. Further microscopic analysis conducted by Dr. Marina Lozano provided clues as to what behaviors may have contributed to the unique wear patterns identified on the teeth of these 5 individuals. Above: The 5 female individuals with atypical patterns of dental wear. Red arrows and circles indicate the location of the wear in the photos. Image from the article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105239. The remarkable preservation of organic remains (textiles, wool, plant fibers, etc.) in addition to extensive durable material culture (awls, loom weights, spindle whorl, needles) found at Argaric archaeological sites provided additional clues as to what tasks may have contributed to the unique patterns of dental wear on the 5 women from Castellón Alto. A probable explanation is that at least some of the women at the site were involved in specialized craft production such as textile production, processing of fiber or cordage, basketry, and similar tasks (see illustration below). Ethnohistoric documentation of the use of the teeth for craft production adds additional support that the formation of atypical dental wear in the subset of the women from Castellón Alto was related to craft production. Above: A scene of Argaric life featuring the many of the tasks related to food preparation and craft-production in the foreground. Ilustración: Miguel Salvatierra "Cultura argárica". The rich archaeological record from the Argaric contexts of southeasten Spain is bound to reveal more insights into human social lives and identities of Bronze Age peoples. In this case, analyses have revealed a unique role for at least some of the women buried at the site engaged in. References and further readingThis study:
Lozano M, Jiménez-Brobeil SA, Willman JC, Sánchez-Barba LP, Molina F, and Rubio Á. 2020. Argaric craftswomen: Sex-based division of labor in the Bronze Age southeastern Iberia. Journal of Archaeological Science:105239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105239. Additional references: I must emphasize the great resources at http://www.pastwomen.net/ and the resources on the Argaric culture in particular (http://www.pastwomen.net/objetos/cultura-argarica) for the preparation of this post. The website offers incredible, multi-language resources for the instructors, scholars, and anyone that is curious about the social lives of women in the past. The researchers, artists, and other contributors have really created an incredible resource. |
John C. Willman
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