Dental Evidence for Prehistoric Dietary Change on the Northern Channel Islands, California

作者：Phillip L. Walker, Jon M. Erlandson · 发表于：American Antiquity · 年份：1986 · DOI：10.2307/279951 · 被引用次数：117 · 研究领域：Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies、Archaeology and ancient environmental studies、Indigenous Studies and Ecology

Santa Rosa Island skeletal collections, dating from between 4000 and 400 B.P., were analyzed for evidence of dental caries. Carious lesions were found to decrease significantly through time, as were sexual differences in caries rates. These trends in dental health appear to reflect changes in diet and sexual division of labor associated with a subsistence shift from the exploitation of roots, tubers, and other cariogenic plant foods to the intensive exploitation of fish. Analysis of dental caries can provide information on prehistoric carbohydrate intake that is unavailable using conventional methods of faunal and artifactual analysis.