Dental disease in a Romano‐British skeletal population from Baldock, Hertfordshire

Abstract

AbstractIn the 1980s preparatory mechanical excavations for a new phase of building development at Baldock, Hertfordshire, revealed Romano‐British inhumations. Subsequent excavations recovered 122 burials, which have been attributed to the fourth century AD.The material was submitted to the Calvin Wells Laboratory, University of Bradford, for detailed skeletal examination. This paper discusses the oral pathology identified and quantified for this relatively small but discrete population sample. The analysis and recording system devised for this exercise indicate that caries was the most serious prevalent dental disease affecting the majority of the individuals of all age groups. The project attempted to integrate the dental pathological evidence with documentary and artefactual evidence for oral hygiene and dentistry in the Roman period.