Difference in public oral health at the Spring/Autumn and Warring States periods between the Central Plains and the northern Great Wall region in China

Abstract

This paper examines differences in oral health between city dwellers from the Chinese dynasty heartland and agricultural soldiers at the frontier between the dynasty and northern nomads during the Spring/Autumn and Warring States periods. The two skeletal samples used in this study were excavated from the contemporary mortuary sites of Xinghong in the middle of the Henan province and Tuchengzi in the southeastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The presence/absence, type, and degree of six dental health conditions—caries, antemortem tooth loss, periapical abscess, alveolar resorption, calculus, and dental attrition—were investigated. The results of this study show that individuals from the Xinghong assemblage suffered from these oral diseases with much greater frequency than did those from the Tuchengzi assemblage, and with much greater frequency than earlier Neolithic and early dynastic groups from the same region (Henan province). Our results are consistent with two explanations based on previous archaeological and historical studies. Firstly, a dramatic decline in oral health conditions during the transition from the Neolithic Age to the Spring/Autumn and Warring States periods at the Chinese dynasty heartland coincides with the elevated productivity of millet and wheat agriculture promoted by technological innovation. Secondary, a difference in oral health conditions during the Spring/Autumn and Warring States periods between the two contemporaneous sites supports previous archaeological and historical studies indicating that agriculture was more intensive during this time in Henan province compared to southeastern Inner Mongolia. In addition to the group differences, the pattern of the sex differences of dental caries prevalence differed between the two sites. For Tuchengzi, there were much higher frequencies of dental caries for females than males. The degrees of these sex differences seem to be beyond the range of which only biological factors (e.g., those related to female reproductive function) could contribute, so cultural factors derived from the sexual division of labor or differential access to foods likely played a role. Stable isotope analysis using the corresponding human skeletal samples suggests one cultural factor, that of males preferring, or having greater access to, meat products over cereals. For the Xinghong site, unexpectedly, the frequency of dental caries is higher in males than females. Thus, the form of the sexual division of labor or differential access to food items could have differed between the city dwellers of the Xinghong site and the pioneers of the Tuchengzi site because of the urbanization of the former area.