MilkTeeth · a biogeochemical investigation of ancient weaning and dairy Milk consumption using human Teeth

MilkTeeth: a biogeochemical investigation of ancient weaning and dairy Milk consumption using human Teeth

Enamel is the hardest biomaterial in the mammal body. It has a high survivorship in the burial environment and resists alteration, making it ideal for archaeological research. Enamel is not remodelled over the lifetime of an animal and biogenic isotopes are preserved. Dental development of teeth is known for many mammals, making it possible to synchronise isotope data to periods of time in an animal’s life, with intratooth sampling increasing resolution and providing life history information within a more discrete timeframe (Figure 1). What is less well known is the process and rate by which enamel formation occurs. Enamel is known to develop starting at the apex of the crown and progressing toward the enamel-root junction, but the rate of this progress is not uniform. Not only the timing but the rate of mineral formation can potentially impact isotopic fractionation, this has generated uncertainty in assigning a time frame to dietary/life events indicated through isotope analysis of intratooth samples. MilkTeeth, therefore, used both (i) isotopes to investigate ancient human milk consumption, and (ii) “Tender” Energy X-ray Spectroscopy (TES) to investigate chemical element inclusion during enamel mineralisation. The former is an effort to build new techniques, and to push the limit of existing techniques, for investigating ancient diet through the analysis of mineralised tissue, with the focus being on mobility (strontium [Sr]) and dietary (calcium [Ca], nitrogen [N] and carbon[C]) isotopes. The latter has been carried out in order to better understand the process and timing of enamel mineralisation. MilkTeeth, at the heart it is a project about people and their diets, especially in regard to ancient milk and dairy food consumption. The human desire for dairy foods has resulted in millions of dairy animals around the world being used to supply this demand, which in turn contributes billions of euros to the global economy. This is a tremendous change from dairy’s humble start during the Neolithic period (~7000-5700 cal. BC). Milk is also a food that provides vital dietary nutrients, and deficiencies in these nutrients are known to have a negative health impact, thus milk and other dairy foods have the potential to improve people’s health and nutritional status. With that said, dairy foods are a significant element in the modern debate about dietary health and nutrition. Research has spoken both to the health risks and benefits of including dairy in the human diet, especially as it relates to bone health, diabetes and heart disease. Additionally, a lack of milk during critical periods of infant development can have huge implications for infant/childhood health and survivorship. Understanding enamel mineralization is the critical first step needed to enable our use of isotope and trace-element chemistry results to unlock a wealth of dietary information about the lives of humans in the past.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз