Dental Microwear in Natufian Hunter-Gatherers and Pre-Pottery Neolithic Agriculturalists from Northern Israel

Description

The aim of this study is to infer dietary texture from dental microwear during the Natufian hunter-gatherer to pre-pottery Neolithic agricultural development in northern Israel. Microwear patterns are recorded from sixty skeletons from eight archaeological sites. Diet-microwear correlations are identified through univariate and multivariate statistical procedures. The study includes an investigation into the relationship between microwear, the position of a molar along the tooth row, and location on molar facet 9. A microwear methodology is developed from these investigations. Dental pits were larger and scratches were wider amongst the agriculturalists, compared to the hunter-gatherers. It is inferred from the microwear pattern that the agriculturalists consumed a harder diet and this was related to an archaeologically suggested change in food processing. It is proposed that the harder diet may have required higher bite forces that were exerted at the bottom of facet 9.