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!
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John C. Willman
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