Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717 http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas
Evaluation of uniradicular teeth for age-at-death estimations in a sample from a Pampean hunter-gatherer cemetery (Argentina) Leandro H. Luna Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, CONICET, Museo Etnogra´fico J.B. Ambrosetti, University of Buenos Aires, Moreno 350, 1091 Buenos Aires, Argentina Received 2 February 2006; received in revised form 3 March 2006; accepted 6 March 2006
Abstract Age-at-death estimation is one of the most important aspects of bioarchaeological and forensic investigations. A set of analysis carried out with the osteological sample recovered from Chenque I site (Lihue´ Calel National Park, La Pampa province, Argentina) aims to test the applicability of multiple methods to obtain reliable information about its demographic composition and structure. In the present paper the results of the evaluation of the structure of uniradicular teeth are presented and discussed. It has been previously stated that chronological age is highly correlated with pulp dimensions in these teeth, because dentine deposition continue during all life. Strong correlation has been also identified with periodontal retraction and apical translucency. The analysis of the structure of these teeth offers useful information in order to obtain age-atdeath estimations of the individuals they belonged to. Dental age-at-death estimations of the control sample were obtained evaluating some skeletal markers (pubic symphysis and auricular surface of coxae), and then compared with the dental analysis. The formulae whose results showed strong correlations with the skeletal estimations were applied to another sample, composed of teeth that were not associated with any skeletal marker of age. The evaluation of premolars and lower central incisors offers estimations that are consistent with those obtained from the evaluation of the pelvic bones, so that the application of these formulae is an alternative method to obtain estimations in archaeological samples from similar contexts. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Bioarchaeology; Hunter-gatherers; Age-at-death; Teeth; Pulp cavity; Apical translucency; Periodontal retraction
1. Introduction Age-at-death estimation based on the evaluation of different anatomic portions of human skeleton and teeth is one of the first and most important aspects of bioarchaeological and forensic analysis. In any archaeological investigation that deals with human remains and has a populational approach, age at death is an essential variable that contribute to understand the demographic composition and structure of the sample, whereas in forensic analysis it is a crucial step in order to identify missing people. To obtain this data it is necessary to observe different morphological features in the remains, to compare the information with the sequence of changes
E-mail address: luna@mail.retina.ar 0305-4403/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2006.03.003
previously recorded in contemporary samples of known origin, and to evaluate any possible source of variability between both populations [34,73]. This procedures aim to join the phases of observed maturation, remodeling and degeneration, that reflect the biological age of the individual, with the chronological age (or years since birth), as accurately as possible [14]. During the lifetime, both the skeleton and the dentition undergo a sequence of chronological modifications. In subadulthood, these changes involve the appearance and development of different structures. It can be evaluated through the analysis of dental formation, calcification and eruption, and also measuring the maximum length of long bones and checking the degree of obliteration of epiphysis, apophysis and other anatomic portions ([21,24,30,61] among others). Adult ageat-death estimation is achieved by applying methods that evaluate the changes in the morphology of specific parts of pelvis
L.H. Luna / Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717
(pubic symphysis and auricular surface). These techniques have been used (with high accuracy in most cases) to estimate age at death of skeletal samples from different parts of the world ([23,42,48,50,71,72] among others). Other methodological improvements have also been developed to obtain information in those cases in which the pelvis is damaged or absent. These techniques offer similar correct estimation percentages than the pelvic ones. Among the most used, those that evaluate the modifications of the sternal end of fourth rib [28] and the degree of obliteration of specific zones of cranial sutures [49] must be highlighted. The level of reliability of these methodological procedures (derived from modern osteological collections) when applied to archaeological samples, is an issue of constant debate in recent years, although most of the studies point out that the individual variation usually exceed the populational differences [75]. When the skeletons are complete, it has been suggested that a multifactorial estimation (also named ‘‘multiregional approach’’) must be performed, evaluating all the methods available for each particular case, in order to obtain a final estimated value that include the variability of the partial results [34]. This proposal is based in the conclusions of several investigations that state that no simple skeletal marker improves the accuracy obtained when using independent criteria, because different anatomic regions may offer non-concordant values. Taking into account this procedure, it is possible to identify the biases and inconsistencies of each method and to obtain more reliable results [5,27,41]. In many other cases, the preservation and/or anatomical relationship of the bones do not allow to develop this methodological protocol, and the age-at-death estimation must be informed in general terms, i.e. taking into account only the different stages of maturation, and obtaining relative estimations. In general terms, investigations with secondary burials all around the world tend to discard the samples that show a high degree of peri- and/or postdepositional modifications, due to the assumed poor quality and quantity information that offer. Usually, and with few exceptions, the bioarchaeological investigations continue preferring samples that contain remains with a good preservation, especially those that allow to apply the traditional techniques for age-at-death estimation and sex determination. This tendency is probably due to the fact that the recovery and analysis of samples with a high degree of fragmentation and/or removal is very time consuming [43,44]. Students that evaluate this naturally and/or culturally modified samples need, almost always, to use alternative techniques, which are in general available, but the relevance of applying them in assemblages from different geographical and/or temporal origin must be analyzed. Potential sources of information that have not yet been made use of in bioarchaeology (with very few exceptions) to obtain adult ageat-death estimations, are teeth. The mineralogical composition and strength of its tissues, and its relatively small size, facilitate its better preservation [13,26]. This characteristic makes teeth a very important (and in occasions unique) resource to recover this kind of information when human remains are commingled or fragmented.
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Most of the students dealing with teeth from archaeological contexts have obtained information about age at death by evaluating the degree of tooth wear. Several charts have been developed, but they can only be applied to samples with similar wear rates. The results obtained from this methods must be evaluated with caution if they cannot be compared with other variables that offer consistent information, because it has been stated that dental wear may be influenced by many other factors, such as kind of food eaten, form of food preparation, use of the dentition as instrument, etc. [13,14,75]. In Argentina, only one investigation has been developed in order to obtain adult age-at-death information from teeth [4]. The authors evaluated the correlation between dental wear of 1M, 1M and 2M, and pelvic age estimation, with a sample of 18 skeletons from Arroyo Seco 2 site (Buenos Aires province, Pampean Region, Argentina), and developed a reliable procedure to infer the age at death with high accuracy [4,5]. In the field of forensic anthropology, many of the methods developed to estimate age at death in adult teeth require destructive preparation techniques, such as the ‘‘half teeth technique’’, or fine section pieces [1,19,25,29,31,64]. These methods must be avoided in any archaeological investigation, for ethic and conservation issues [36,38,67]. Apical translucency was also used in other cases as a reliable variable to estimate age, in isolation [2,66,78] or in association with periodontal retraction [39,58]. Some scholars considered that apical translucency is the factor that offers the greatest correlation with age when used isolately [2,22,25,40,51,53]. Another variable in consideration was teeth color [47,65], but it has not much value for archaeological analysis because of the variable incidence of postdepositional agents and the low correlation identified in such cases. Willems [76] revised these and other techniques used to estimate dental age. A set of analysis carried out with the osteological sample recovered from Chenque I site (Lihue´ Calel National Park, La Pampa province, Western Pampean Region, Argentina) aims to test the applicability of multiple methods in order to obtain reliable information about its demographic composition and structure, and to adjust the results obtained, especially with the remains recover in the first levels of excavation, which are very fragmented, commingled and removed. The aim of this paper is to test the applicability of the method proposed by Kvaal and Solheim [38] to estimate adult age at death evaluating the modifications of the inner structure and some external characteristics of human uniradicular teeth. Kvaal and Solheim [38] proposed a method that evaluates the morphological modifications of the pulpodentinal complex, the portion of the teeth that more accurately undergo changes with age [74]. This proposal preserves the integrity of the teeth and evaluates variables that are only consistently affected by age. It is a non-destructive technique that aims to obtain information about the size and shape of pulp cavity and root, including features that are not influenced by pathological and functional processes affecting the crown, as apical translucency and periodontal retraction [20,38,39]. The authors evaluated 452 incisors, canines and premolars from European people, excluding multiradicular teeth because its pulp morphology is more
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L.H. Luna / Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717
complex and the measures are much more affected by intraobserver error [36]. Besides, Prapanpoch and coworkers [59] evaluated the dimensions of the pulp cavity of a sample of molars, and concluded that the correlations with age were very low. 2. Characteristics of Chenque I site and of the sample Chenque I site is a cemetery located in the Lihue´ Calel National Park (La Pampa province, Western Pampean Region, Argentina) (Fig. 1). Hunter-gatherer societies made use of it during the end of the Late Holocene, between 1030 and 370 AP. Due to the great quantity of information obtained, Chenque I site is one of the most important hunter-gatherer’s mortuary sites in Argentina. So far, 42 square meters have been excavated, about 20% of the total area. It has two units clearly defined, with very different characteristics. The Superior Unit (0e30 cm depth) contains thousands of skeletal and dental remains with different degrees of fragmentation, comminglement, arrangement and anatomic association. In the Inferior Unit (below 30 cm), 33 burials have been identified. In both Units, a lot of cultural material was recovered. The majority of the artifacts are beads manufactured in different raw materials (mollusks, bone, stone, etc.), but other ornaments have also been found (for example metal pendants). Up to this moment, the MNI (minimum number of individuals)
for the Superior Unit is 53 (25 adults), and 58 for the Inferior Unit (38 adults). The final value is 109 individuals, both adults and subadults, males and females, value that surpass any estimation known in the Pampean Region. It can then be stated that several hundred bodies have been buried in it, which is a very interesting point because the societies that inhumated the corpses in it were hunter-gatherer groups with high logistic mobility and long-distance interaction networks [6e11,44,46]. 3. Material and methods The sample is composed by all complete uniradicular teeth (incisors, canines and premolars) recovered from Chenque I site in six excavation fieldworks between 1997 and 2004. The teeth whose degree of wear affected the pulp cavity structure, and those pathological or with any alteration of its normal structure (i.e. hypercementosis, other radicular protuberances, supernumerary roots, etc.) were excluded. The final number of teeth studied was 132. This sample was divided in two subgroups: Subsample A contains 69 teeth from 10 bodies from the Inferior Unit, whose age at death was estimated using traditional methods, i.e., evaluating the characteristics of pubic symphysis (following Suchey and Katz [70] and Todd [71,72] methods) and auricular surface of ilium (following Lovejoy et al. [42] and Meindl
Fig. 1. Location of Lihue´ Calel National Park.
L.H. Luna / Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717 Table 1 Sex and age at death of the individuals included in Subsample A Burial
Sex
Age (years)
6 7 10 15 16 (Ind. 1) 17 19 24 27 (Ind. 1) 27 (Ind. 2)
M F F M M M M F M M
50e59 25e30 30e39 22e24 30e39 17e19 20e29 21e24 25e28 40e49
and Lovejoy [50] methods). Sex and age of each burial are resumed in Table 1. Subsample B contains uniradicular teeth from: (1) the Superior Unit (all of them are isolated, so that there is no information about age at death of the people they belonged to); (2) the inhumations from Inferior Unit that contain remains of individuals whose age at death could not be estimated using conventional methods, because coxae were very fragmented or absent; and [3] collective burials that contain commingled remains (N Âź 63; Table 2). In this latter case, age-at-death estimations were obtained from pubic symphysis and/or auricular surface, but it was not possible to know which teeth correspond to which os coxae, because the anatomic association was lost. Individuals from the Inferior Unit that are included in Subsample B correspond to burials No. 8, 29 and 31, and to Assemblage No. 21/23. Each one of the burials is described in [11]. To conform this subsample, only some teeth were selected, because the degree of reliability of the results was previously evaluated with the teeth of Subsample A, as described below. Analyzing only the type of teeth, the MNI of Subsample B is 18, and nine of them belong to the Superior Unit. The remains from Superior Unit and those of the burials included in Subsample B contain very few elements that allow to obtain reliable information about age at death. In order to optimize the quality of the information that may be obtained, the applicability of the multiple regression formulae proposed by Kvaal and Solheim [38] is evaluated, comparing the estimations with those obtained using traditional methods. In the present paper the dimensions of the pulp cavity were radiographically evaluated, and the apical translucency and periodontal retraction were macroscopically evaluated,
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following Kvaal and Solheim [38] (Fig. 2). The chosen variables are adequate to analyze archaeological samples because they do not take into account the crown dimensions, allowing the inclusion of teeth with low/medium wear. Other similar proposals cannot be used in the majority of the archaeological samples because crown must be intact, with no wear or damage [15,16,18,36,37,40,67]. Previous papers compared teeth with and without wear from the same dentition, and concluded that the rate of secondary dentine deposition is not much influenced by wear [18,56,67]. Secondary dentine deposition by odontoblasts in the pulp wall is a slow and constant process that gradually reduces the dimensions of the pulp cavity, and can be indirectly measured through the metric evaluation of the pulp in radiographs [24,36,59]. The quantity of secondary dentine deposited would be, then, strongly correlated with chronological age [26,29,32,67,68]. In regard of the apical translucency, the dentinal tubules of the apical zone became harder with age, and are occluded by hydroxyapatite crystals [20,29]. Dentine opacity is produced by the difference in the refraction rate of the fundamental crystalline components and the intratubular organic molecules.
Table 2 Composition of Subsample B Tooth
N
1UPm 2Upm 1LI 1LPm 2LPm Total
11 19 22 6 5 63
Abbreviations: 1UPm, first upper premolar; 2UPm, second upper premolar; 1LI, first lower incisor; 1LPm, first lower premolar; 2LPm, second lower premolar.
Fig. 2. Sagittal view of a uniradicular teeth, in which the measures evaluated are shown (Modified from [36]). PR, periodontal retraction; PWC, pulp width at cementoenamel junction; RWC, root width at cementoenamel junction; PWM, pulp width at midroot; RWM, root width at midroot; RL, root length; PL, pulp length; AT, apical translucency.
L.H. Luna / Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717
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When the refraction rates are equal, the dentine is translucent and permits the light to trespass it, process that starts approximately with the beginning of the third decade of life [39,60]. The periodontal retraction, or periodontosis, is caused by the degeneration of the soft tissue around the teeth, beginning in the neck toward the apex of the root, and appears as a smooth yellowish/brownish area underneath the enamel, darker than it but brighter than the rest of the root [39,60]. The multiple regression formulae developed by Kvaal and Solheim [38] are shown in Table 3. Some of them include the apical translucency and the periodontal retraction, but other do not, because, in the original paper, the coefficient of correlation between both of them and age were in general too low (differing from the results of other papers; i.e. [2,20,39,60,66,67]). According to this, Foti et al. [22] evaluated the application of the Lamendin method [39] to a sample containing periodontal diseases, and concluded that many factors other than age, such as bad hygiene, physical, chemical or mechanical irritations, and some predisposition factors like dental morphology and the presence of systemic diseases, influence the joint of the periodontal ligaments with the root. These authors, in concordance with Sperber [69], state that there is no correlation between this variable and chronological age, but highlight the pertinence of using apical translucency to age-at-death estimations [22]. The ratios between length and width of the pulp and length and width of the root were included in the present paper, following Kvaal and Solheim [38] proposal, in order to minimize the effect of X-ray magnification and angulation, and to standardize the differences of dental size [16,18,36,38]. The variables measured are described below [17,19,20,38,39,60] (Fig. 2): 1. Root Length (RL): This variable was measured between the cementoenamel junction with the dentine and the apex of the root, in the mesial surface of the tooth.
2. Pulp Length (PL): In the X-ray plaque the length between the apex of the root and the projection of the pulp in the crown closest to the occlusal surface is measured, without regarding whether this projection is in the mesial or in the distal half of the tooth. 3. Root Widths: In the X-ray plaque two measures were taken, in two different zones of the tooth: at the cementoenamel junction (RWC), and at midroot (RWM). 4. Pulp Widths: The widths of the pulp were measured in the X-ray images at the cementoenamel junction (PWC), and at midroot (PWM). 5. Apical Translucency (AT): This was directly measured with the aid of a strong contrasting light, in the labial surface of the root, because it was suggested that the translucency is usually longer in this surface. 6. Periodontal Retraction (PR): the minimal distance between the cementoenamel junction and the joint of the periodontal fibers was directly measured in the mesial surface of the root. Through this set of measurements a good approximation to the characteristics of the dental root is obtained. Given that previous researchers showed that differences in the agerelated parameters are insignificant in contralateral teeth [66e68], right and left teeth were pooled. In the same way, there are no differences related to sex [17,20], so it was not necessary to discriminate the sample between males and females. X-ray plaques were obtained using a Toshiba KXO-15R radiographer, and the time of exposition was 0.03 s (40 kV, >100 mA). The teeth were situated with the mesiodistal plane parallel to the film. Teeth and radiographs were measured with a vernier caliper, with a precision of 0.02 mm. In previous papers it was stated that accuracy of metric evaluations improved using magnified images [77]. In the present analysis apical
Table 3 Multiple regression formulae to age-at-death estimation through the evaluation of the pulp cavity size, the periodontal retraction and the apical translucency [36] Formula no.
Tooth
Formula
r
S.D.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
1UI 2UI UC 1Upm
E ¼ 71.2 133.7 (PWM/RWM) 56.0 (PWC/RWC) E ¼ 69.3 14.5 (PWM/RWM) 63.0 (PWC/RWC) E ¼ 120.2 62.5 (PL/RL) E ¼ 82.0 95.9 (PWC/RWC) þ 2.0 TA þ 1.7 RP 50.6 (PL/RL) E ¼ 112.6 85.0 (PWC/RWC) þ 2.4 RP 116.3 (PWM/RWM) 64.8 (PL/RL) E ¼ 30.8 þ 2.5 RP 96.0 (PWC/RWC) þ 3.7 AT E ¼ 36.9 þ 2.9 RP 102.9 (PWC/RWC) E ¼ 40.3 122.4 (PWC/RWC) þ 4.4 AT E ¼ 68.5 124.4 (PWC/RWC) E ¼ 72.1 173.6 (PWC/RWC) E ¼ 43.8 139.6 (PWC/RWC) þ 3.8 AT E ¼ 75.9 174.7 (PWC/RWC) E ¼ 75.5 185.9 (PWC/RWC) 105.4 (PWM/RWM) þ 1.4 PR E ¼ 54.0 107.0 (PWM/RWM) 97.0 (PWC/RWC) þ 2.4 AT E ¼ 80.0 192.7 (PWM/RWM) 96.6 (PWC/RWC)
0.50 0.72 0.48 0.83 0.80 0.90 0.86 0.65 0.55 0.71 0.78 0.65 0.78 0.82 0.77
14.51 11.93 13.54 10.15 11.22 8.48 9.70 11.37 12.54 12.54 10.51 12.73 13.71 13.14 14.35
2Upm 1LI 2LI LC 1LPm 2LPm
Abbreviations: r, Pearson coefficient of correlation between chronological and estimated age from the sample evaluated to develop the formulae; S.D., standard deviation; 1UI, first upper incisor; 2UI, second upper incisor; UC, upper canine; 1UPm, first upper premolar; 2UPm, second upper premolar; 1LI, first lower incisor; 2LI, second lower incisor; LC, lower canine; 1LPm, first lower premolar; 2LPm, second lower premolar; E, estimated age at death; PWM, pulp width at midroot; RWM, root width at midroot; PWC, pulp width at the cementoenamel junction; RWC, root width at the cementoenamel junction; PL, pulp length; RL, root length; AT, apical translucency; PR, periodontal retraction.
L.H. Luna / Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717 Table 4 Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) results obtained to assess the accuracy in the measuring of the variables (N ¼ 45) Variable
ICC
PWM RWM PWC RWC PL RL AT PR
0.96 0.93 0.90 0.90 0.99 0.99 0.94 0.91
Abbreviations: see Table 3.
translucency and periodontal retraction were measured in a stereomicroscope Hokenn ZTX-3E. In many cases it was not possible to measure the apical translucency because the root was completely opaque, situation that was previously stated in an archaeological sample by Vlcek and Mrklas (cited in [33]). Several environmental factors may affect the dental tubuli, causing the insertion of molecules of different origin in the pulp canal, and altering the translucency effect [35]. The same impossibility was sometimes observed in periodontal retraction. In these cases, only the formulae that do not include those variables, were used (Table 3), while in the rest, as the results of both formulae for the same teeth were always so similar, the final result was the average of the values of the formulae used. The measures of the morphological parameters must be reproducible. This means that the definitions of the location of the points of each variable have to be explicit and accurate, and that intra and interobserver errors should be minimized [12,32]. In order to know the degree of accuracy in the measuring of the variables, intraobserver error was evaluated using
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the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) [54,79]. Forty-five teeth were randomly selected, and were measured twice with an interval of 2 weeks between each one. Data obtained were processed with the R 1.9.1 package [55]. Kvaal and Solheim [38] formulae were used in Subsample A, and Pearson coefficients of correlation (r) were calculated for each variable and tooth. Age-at-death estimations and the correlation values were compared, in order to select the formulae subsequently used in Subsample B (those with an r value greater than 0.75). For the first inferior incisor the formulae were modified with the aim of obtaining consistent results with skeletal estimations, as stated below. In all cases, in order to compare skeletal and dental estimations of age, the limits of each skeletal estimation for each individual were averaged. 4. Results Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) values are very high in all cases, which guarantees that the results are not significantly influenced by errors during the measuring of the variables (Table 4). Table 5 shows the information about skeletal and dental age. Data for each tooth, and an average of dental estimations for each individual are provided. In the majority of the cases the averages of the dental and skeletal estimations are dissimilar, excepting burial Nos. 10, 16 (Ind.1) and 24 (Table 5). Differences are statistically important (ICC ¼ 0.60). Moreover, the correlation between both estimations is relatively low (r ¼ 0.73) (Fig. 3). Premolars values are almost always included inside the interval of the skeletal estimations. So r was evaluated in Subsample A for each tooth. Correlations are higher than 0.75 in all premolars and first inferior incisors,
Table 5 Comparison of the skeletal and dental estimations Burial
Lat.
Sk. Age
1UI age
2UI age
UC age
1UPm age
2UPm age
1LI age
2LI age
LC age
1LPm age
2LPm age
Average dental age
6
R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L
50e59
e e e e e 42.72 36.77 28.90 e e e e 36.27 29.06 e e e 31.34 e e
e e 50.61 52.45 e e 38.66 39.65 48.80 51.08 e 36.84 49.92 e e e e 39.36 e e
e e e e e 59.28 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e
e e e 26.02 33.29 33.92 22.13 22.05 e e e e e e e 21.23 e e e e
e e e 24.99 e 34.14 24.68 22.26 e e e 18.78 e e 23.51 e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e 33.06 e 39.53 41.34 e e e 44.99 57.25 62.81
e e e 46.38 e e 29.18 39.28 20.02 25.52 e e 34.12 e e e e 42.55 e e
39.47 e e e e e 34.66 36.86 e e e e 36.22 43.25 e e e 39.45 e e
e e 27.20 27.39 30.33 32.47 25.83 e e 31.34 e e e e e e e 24.41 e e
49.65 38.34 e 26.41 e e 22.68 e e 28.51 e e 27.68 e 21.03 e e e e e
42.48
6.22
35.18
12.25
38.02
10.15
30.25
7.09
34.21
12.76
29.56
9.52
37.48
6.96
21.92
1.37
39.45
9.54
60.03
3.93
7 10 15 16 (Ind. 1) 17 19 24 27 (Ind. 1) 27 (Ind. 2)
25e30 30e39 22e24 30e39 17e19 20e29 21e24 25e28 40e49
Abbreviations: see Table 3.
S.D.
L.H. Luna / Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717
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60
Table 7 Modified formulae
50
Formula no
Type of teeth
Formula
40
8
1LI
E ¼ 40.3 122.4 (PWC/RWC) þ 4.4 TA 16.25 E ¼ 68.5 124.4 (PWC/RWC) 16.25
Skeletal Age
70
30 20
9
10 0 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Dental Age Fig. 3. Dispersion diagram of dental and skeletal estimations. All the teeth recovered for each individual have been taken into account (r ¼ 0.73).
and much lower in other teeth (i.e. second inferior incisor and inferior canine) (Table 6). Comparing age-at-death estimations for each tooth and correlation values, it is observed that for the premolars, dental estimations very similar to skeletal age are associated with high values of r. On the contrary, first inferior incisor shows a high coefficient of correlation associated with low correspondence between skeletal and dental estimations, which would be overlooked introducing a correction factor in the formulae. Dental age estimations are 16.25 years in average above the midpoint of the skeletal estimations, so subtracting this value in the regression formulae, the results obtained are consistent with skeletal estimations. Modified formulae are shown in Table 7. Subsequently, dental ages were re-estimated, discarding teeth with low coefficient of correlation (r < 0.75) (Table 8). Only formulae of the four premolars and first inferior incisor were included (Formulae 4 to 9 and 13 to 15 in Table 3). In this case the ICC value is very high (ICC ¼ 0.94), which means that skeletal and dental estimations are now consistent. Comparison of dispersion graphics before and after eliminating lower correlation teeth (Figs. 3 and 4) shows a much higher adecuation of estimations in the second one (r ¼ 0.97), and considerably lower deviations in the majority of the cases (Tables 5 and 8). These formulae were then applied to Subsample B. Although previous papers divided adult age in five years intervals when drawing the mortality profile (i.e. [35]), in this case it
Table 6 Results of the Spearman coefficient of correlation (r) between skeletal and dental estimations according to type of teeth Type of teeth 1UI 2UI UC 1UPm 2UPm 1LI 2LI LC 1LPm 2LPm Abbreviations: see Table 3.
r 0.73 0.64 e 0.99 0.97 0.99 0.52 0.37 0.91 0.96
A correction factor has been added, according to the results obtained. Abbreviations: see Table 3.
was considered that this breadth is inadequate, specially to individuals over 30 years old, because it may introduce errors in the interpretation of the results. It is necessary to keep always in mind that all these results are only age-at-death estimations, and that breadth interval reduction may artificially distort the structure of the data. That is why it is considered more adequate to establish 10-year intervals. Results are offered separately for Superior Unit (Table 9) and Inferior Unit (Table 10) teeth. 5. Discussion Bioarchaeological analysis of highly modified samples usually has multiple methodological problems, which means that information obtained on age and sex is partial and biased. Ideally all recovered individuals must be included when the aim is to develop some kind of palaeodemographical reconstruction, because this is the best way to obtain less biased information about the actual demographical profile. Nevertheless, it is usually only possible to include only those individuals whose bones are associated, highly represented and well preserved [44]. Up to this moment only general approximations have been carried out to know the age-at-death profile of the individuals recovered from the Superior Unit of Chenque I site. Relative age at death has been estimated through the evaluation of dental wear. Very diverse values of dental wear were identifieddfollowing the techniques offered by Molnar [52], Scott [62] and Smith [63]dfrom some with no wear macroscopically identified, to some with a complete enamel wear and root dentine in occlusion. It was then inferred that individuals of all stages of adulthood were present in that sample [44]. Data presented in this paper are the first ones related to absolute age at death, which implies a significant advance in the knowledge of the demographic structure of Chenque I site. It is clear that dentine deposition pattern varies in the sample according to the type of tooth, so that the results of their evaluation vary in the degree of reliability that they offer. In some cases r values are low (i.e. second upper and lower incisors, and inferior canines; Table 6), so they were not used in Subsample B analysis. This coincides with results from previous studies [57,58]. Comparing the data given by those formulae that include the values of the apical translucency and the periodontal retraction with those that do not (Table 3), it arises that in most cases they were very similar, so the results could be
L.H. Luna / Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717
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Table 8 Comparison of skeletal and dental estimations Burial
Lat
Sk. age
1UPm age
2UPm age
1LI age
1LPm age
2LPm age
Dental age average
S.D.
6
R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L
50e59
e e e 26.02 33.29 33.92 22.13 22.05 e e e e e e e 21.23 e e e e
e e e 24.99 e 34.14 24.68 22.26 e e e 18.78 e e 23.51 e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e 16.81 e 23.28 26.09 e e e 28.74 41 46.56
e e 27.20 27.39 30.33 32.47 25.83 e e 31.34 e e e e e e e 24.41 e e
49.65 38.34 e 26.41 e e 22.68 e e 28.51 e e 27.68 e 21.03 e e e e e
44.01
7.99
26.40
0.96
32.83
1.54
23.27
1.59
29.92
2.00
17.79
1.39
25.68
2.22
21.92
1.37
26.57
3.06
43.78
3.93
7 10 15 16 (Ind. 1) 17 19 24 27 (Ind. 1) 27 (Ind. 2)
25e30 30e39 22e24 30e39 17e19 20e29 21e24 25e28 40e49
In this case, only dental variables with r > 0.75 were included. Abbreviations: see Table 3.
averaged. It can be stated, then, that both variables offer useful and relevant information about age, and must be incorporated in every analysis that aims to obtain age-at-death estimations. This statement differs from the conclusions of previous investigations (i.e. [22,38,69]), but is in concordance with numerous papers that evaluate samples from different regions in the world [2,20,25,39,60,66,67]. The results have different implications depending on the particular characteristics of each assemblage. Regarding teeth from Superior Unit, the results tend to be concordant with the information previously known of the individuals from Inferior Unit, obtained using traditional methods in the postcranial skeleton (Tables 9 and 11; see Table 9 in [11]). In this site, individuals of all ages have been buried, including senile adults, and comparing the age structure of both units, they show very similar frequencies of each interval. Comparing Tables 9 and 11, it can be observed that the highest relative frequencies correspond, in both units, to the younger adults (20e29 years old), declining in the subsequent intervals, and with very low frequencies in the latest two. The general pattern, and also the specific frequencies for each interval of age, are 50
Skeletal Age
40 30 20 10 0 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Dental Age Fig. 4. Dispersion diagram of dental and skeletal estimations. Only premolars and first lower incisors have been taken into account (r ¼ 0.97).
similar, which could be determined comparing statistically the dental age-at-death estimations from Superior Unit with skeletal estimations from Inferior Unit (ICC ¼ 0.93). This implies that the characteristics of the whole sample of corpses excavated from Chenque I site reflect a uniform situation that cannot establish differences between the units in the frequency distributions of age at death, although they present so dissimilar characteristics in the degree of preservation, fragmentation and anatomic relation of the elements. This supports the idea, stated in previous papers, that this cemetery is a monticular formation built through the planned removal of burials with the objective of generate new space and bury more corpses, continuously for about 700 years. This behavior of intensive reuse of the site reveals that this was a referential place to the systematic inhumation of corpses during several generations [11,46]. Besides, the estimations obtained for the individuals of the Inferior Unit add relevant information to the present knowledge (Table 10). Burial No. 8 contains some bones of two adults (a male and a female) and of two subadults (0e 2 months and 5e7 years old). Adult ages could not be previously estimated due to the absence of coxae [6,46]. The results of this study state that the age at death of the adults were 20e30 and 45e55 years old. Assemblage 21/23 is a very complex burial that shows a combined modality of inhumation, with numerous secondary bones associated with other in the form of ‘‘disposition’’. This term refers to a situation in which the anatomical structure of the corpse is modified immediately after death, with an intentional arrangement. It occurs previous to the skeletization process, with soft tissues still present. Different skeletal parts of the body (skull, trunk, appendicular skeleton, etc.) were disarticulated and reordered forming a funerary package, with definite limits [7,9,11]. This is a variant of inhumation not
L.H. Luna / Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717
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Table 9 Age-at-death estimations of teeth from Superior Unit (Subsample B) Tooth
1LI 1UPm 2UPm 1LPm 2LPm Total NMI F
20e29 yr
30e39 yr
40e49 yr
>60 yr
50e59 yr
Total
R
L
R
L
R
L
R
L
R
L
R
L
2 0 5 1 1 9 5 0.38
1 3 2 1 1 8
3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0.24
3 0 2 2 0 7
3 0 1 0 0 4 3 0.24
3 0 1 0 0 4
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.07
1 0 0 0 0 1
1 0 1 0 0 2 1 0.07
0 0 0 0 0 0
9 0 7 1 1 18 13 1
8 3 5 3 1 20
MNI, Minimum number of individuals; F, frequency of individuals for each age interval. This value was obtained dividing the MNI of each interval with whole MNI, that in this case is 13. Other abbreviations: see Table 3.
previously registered in the country. The MNI of this feature is 5 (four males and a female). Ages at death of two males were estimated previously: 20e29 and 30e39 years old [10]. This latest skeletal estimation coincides with the dental one obtained for individual 1. Besides, other two estimations were obtained, 40e50 years old in one case, and >60 in the other. Burial Nos. 29 and 31 are two other complex structures, also with combined modalities of disposal (secondary bones associated with ‘‘dispositions’’). Both have been only partially excavated; nevertheless they were included here in order to increase the size of the control sample, because skeletal age at death could be estimated through evaluation of coxae. In that sense, the characteristics described below are not definitive, and are obviously referred only to the remains excavated until this moment. Burial No. 29 contains an assemblage of bones that belongs to a minimum of five individuals. Skulls, coxae, and articulated foot bones have been placed in a circular way. All the individuals are juveniles or young adults. Age at death of three of these individuals has been previously estimated: 16e 19 years old, 18e20 years old and 22e24 years old [11]. Data obtained through dental evaluation coincide with these estimations (Table 10). It should be explained that in this case the age intervals were established in five years because age estimation of young adults are more accurate that those of older individuals. Finally, in burial No. 31 several articulated lower limbs have been grouped together (MNI ¼ 4). Only the skeletal Table 10 Age-at-death estimations and teeth analyzed from Inferior Unit burials (Subsample B) Burial/Assemblage
Age (years)
Teeth analyzed
Burial 8 (Ind. 1) Burial 8 (Ind. 2) Assemblage 21/23 (Ind. 1) Assemblage 21/23 (Ind. 2) Assemblage 21/23 (Ind. 3) Burial 29 (Ind. 1) Burial 29 (Ind. 2) Burial 29 (Ind. 3) Burial 31
45e55 20e30 30e40 >60 40e50 17e22 20e25 15e20 25e35
1LI 1UPm, 2UPm, 1LPm 1LI, 1LPm 1LI 2UPm 1UPm, 2UPm, 2UPm 1UPm 2UPm 2UPm, 2UPm
Abbreviations: see Table 3.
age of one individual was estimated (30e35 years old) [11]. The dental evaluation shows that one individual of 25e 35 years old is present in this assemblage, so it may correspond to the same person. 6. Conclusions The results obtained allow assurance that the structure of certain uniradicular teeth may be evaluated to estimate adult age at death. Moreover, it is an economic method, the measurement of the variables is relatively easy, and neither sophisticated equipment nor prior knowledge is required. High correlations between the skeletal estimations and those obtained from the procedures considered in the present paper were identified (Table 8). The application of formulae for premolars and first lower incisors contribute to the understanding of the demographic structure of the sample analyzed. This is a very important point because it was not possible to apply a multifactorial approach, and there are no alternative methods to obtain relevant information taking into account the degree of alteration and comminglement of Subsample B. This implies a great advance related to the knowledge about the demographic structure of the human assemblage from Chenque I site. Previous papers that study which structural changes of the tooth are better correlated with age, showed different results. Usually, better correlations were identified in premolars [16,17,38], and worse in canines and central incisors [36,38], but other scholars concluded that better estimations come from canines [19,40] or central incisors [39,60]. These disparate results may be related with differences in the relative Table 11 Number and relative frequencies for Inferior Unit
N F
20e29 yr
30e39 yr
40e49 yr
50e59 yr
>60 yr
Total
11 0.48
5 0.22
6 0.26
1 0.04
0 0
23 1
Only individuals with skeletal age-at-death estimations are included. See more information in [11]: Table 9). Abbreviations: N, number of individuals for each interval; F, frequency of individuals for each interval. This value was obtained by dividing the MNI for each interval with whole MNI, which in this case is 23.
L.H. Luna / Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 1706e1717
size of the pulp chamber, and with interpopulational variations in the rate of secondary dentine deposition. Only two previous applications of similar techniques have been identified in archaeological contexts [37,56]. This line of analysis offers an alternative approach when the conditions of preservation and contextual association of the teeth are not adequate to use the traditional methods. Besides, the possibility of testing the applicability of each formula, comparing skeletons from the same site, gives more strength to the results. Previous procedures that aimed to adjust the data in the same way were performed at Chenque I site with the sex determination of subadults, with positive results [45]. Formulae 8 and 9 had to be modified, introducing a correction factor so that the final values were consistent (Table 7), which highlights the importance of keeping in mind potential interpopulational variations. This diversity may suggest that direct application of methods generated with a sample that has different phenotypic characteristics is not usually an advisable procedure. In this case, the modification of some formulae was probably necessary due to the existence of populational differences in the dimensions of the inner structure of teeth. It is possible to surmise that the groups that buried their dead in the Chenque I site had a pulp chamber relatively smaller since the beginning of adulthood, compared with the original sample. Using the original formulae, dental estimations for these teeth are not consistent with skeletal estimations, but high values of correlation are showing similar rates of secondary dentine deposition continuously during all adult life, so errors in the estimation are overlooked through this procedure. The only plausible explanation is that the size of the pulp chamber at the beginning of the process of dentine deposition may have been different between the original sample and the one from the Chenque I site. If the formulae could be tested in other samples from the study region, the quality of the information obtained would be surely improved. It is also desirable that similar investigations be developed in other areas of the country, in order to identify similarities and differences in the changes of the teeth in relation to age, and to refine the palaeodemographic reconstruction on a macroregional level. Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincere thanks to several people. Luis Bosio collaborated in the adjustment of the methodological procedure. Mo´nica Bero´n promoted the development of this paper and critically read it through. Claudia Aranda, Alberto Cimino and Ine´s Baffi made very interesting comments on a preliminary version of this paper, and contributed to improving its quality in numerous aspects. Paula Novellino and two other anonymous reviewers suggested modifications that clarified several aspects of the manuscript. Marina Sprovieri, Felix Acuto and Vincent Boigey revised the translation into English. I especially thank Vicente Tendero for the design of an ingenious device that offers the contrast needed to observe the X-ray and the apical translucencies.
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