Dental calculus in the industrial age: Human dental calculus in the Post-Medieval period, a case study from industrial Manchester.

The analysis of dental calculus (mineralised dental plaque) has become an increasingly important facet of bioarchaeological research. Although microscopic analysis of microdebris entrapped within dental calculus has revealed important insights into the diet, health, and environment of multiple prehistoric populations, relatively few studies have examined the contributions of this approach to more recent historical periods. In this study, we analyze dental calculus from an English Post-Medieval, middle-class urban skeletal assemblage from Manchester, England using light microscopy.

Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia-New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf.

Archaeological sites with surface hearths are a ubiquitous feature across the arid zones of the Arabian interior. At Jebel Oraf, in the Jubbah basin of the Nefud Desert of northern Arabia, numerous grinding stone fragments were found in association with hearths, though the original purpose of these stones was unclear owing to the poor preservation of faunal and botanic remains. Here we describe results from use-wear analysis on five grinding tools at Jebel Oraf, demonstrating that such artefacts were used during the Neolithic for plant processing, bone processing, and pigment production.

Bioarchaeological and paleogenomic profiling of the unusual Neolithic burial from Grotta di Pietra Sant'Angelo (Calabria, Italy).

The Neolithic burial of Grotta di Pietra Sant'Angelo (CS) represents a unique archaeological finding for the prehistory of Southern Italy. The unusual placement of the inhumation at a rather high altitude and far from inhabited areas, the lack of funerary equipment and the prone deposition of the body find limited similarities in coeval Italian sites. These elements have prompted wider questions on mortuary customs during the prehistory of Southern Italy.

More than what we eat: Investigating an alternative pathway for intact starch granules in dental calculus using Experimental Archaeology.

Starch granules and other plant tissues are commonly found as part of the microdebris assemblage analysed within dental calculus. These are often interpreted as evidence of past diets. However, many of the starch granules extracted from dental calculus are intact, and do not show evidence of alterations as a result of being processed for consumption.

Beyond dirty teeth: Integrating dental calculus studies with osteoarchaeological parameters.

The study of ancient human dental calculus (mineralized dental plaque, also known as tartar) is becoming increasingly important in osteoarchaeology, human palaeoecology and environmental archaeology. Microremains of different origin (e.g.