TRI-DENTUM · Inferring Past Human Diets through a three-fold approach: Dental Microwear, micro-residues within Dental Calculus and Erosion Patterns of the Temporomandibular joint (TMJ)
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-02-01 → 2023-01-31
- EU contribution
- €191,149
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Inferring Past Human Diets through a three-fold approach: Dental Microwear, micro-residues within Dental Calculus and Erosion Patterns of the Temporomandibular joint (TMJ)
The TRI-DENTUM project aimed to investigate past human diets from an evolutionary perspective. It involved research in archaeology, biology, dentistry, and evolutionary medicine. The main aim was to build an innovative and multidisciplinary method to infer past human diets from the examination of dental remains. The diet of selected individuals recovered from two medieval cemeteries had to be studied and diet and dental status had to be reconstructed through an original, three-fold approach. Three independent analyses were applied: macroscopic analysis, radiology, and proteomics. It is important to know how dental diseases evolved and the role of diet and behaviour in the process. This could potentially ameliorate dental conditions in the present populations. Documenting oral diseases in ancient human remains is the first step toward a thorough reconstruction of the ancient epidemiology of these diseases. The results of this project are the first step towards a more in-depth approach, including a larger number of archaeological sites. The main objective was to infer the dietary habits of medieval populations based on a combined method including the analysis of dental pathologies in selected individuals; analysis of dental calculus and analysis of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) of the same individuals. Since the two sites have different chronological dates, it was possible to apply an evolutionary approach when interpreting the results from dental paleo-pathologies and from ancient proteins retrieved from dental calculus.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Identifying past human diets is a key to understanding biological changes and cultural adaptations of Homo sapiens. A variety of proxies are generally considered to reconstruct ancient and historic nutrition, mostly recovered from osteological samples. Teeth are often subject to research, as they directly relate to mastication. Dental microwear is a direct evidence of differential masticatory regimes, while dental calculus may retain micro-residues of the food ingested. Yet, only a few studies have proposed the combination of dental microwear and analysis of dental calculus. Even more rarely, such data have been contextualized in the masticatory apparatus.The TRI-DENTUM project aims to investigate past human diet from an evolutionary perspective. It is multidisciplinary in scope, as it involves archaeology, biology, dentistry and evolutionary medicine. It explores the possibility of developing innovative methodological approaches to infer past human diets from the examination of osteological specimens. The diet of selected individuals recovered from a medieval German cemetery and the Canton of Zurich’s archaeological collection will be reconstructed through an original, three-fold approach. Three independent analyses are considered: dental microwear, extraction of micro-residues from dental calculus and evaluation of radiological osteoarthritis signs in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). While working on the project, the researcher will acquire new skills in bioarchaeology and evolutionary medicine at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine (IEM) (Zurich, Switzerland).TRI-DENTUM will foster advancements within archaeology, being therefore transformational to the field, as it will allow approaching past human diet with an innovative and holistic approach. Hence, the methodology designed herein will be applicable in the future to varied geographical areas and chronological periods to respond to specific questions related to the evolution of the human diet.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITAT ZURICH · ZurichCoordinatorSwitzerland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union