Microevolution and biological adaptability in the transition from food-collecting to food-producing in the Iron Gates of Yugoslavia

Abstract

Dental and mandibular changes were studied in Iron Gates populations in Hugoslavia dating from 6300–4500 b.c. (uncalibrated 14 C). During this time the Iron Gates diet gradually shifted away from fish, small game and wild grain to domesticated animals and cereals. The earlier population (Vlasac) biomechanically developed smaller jaws which caused the following diseases of the molars: alveolar lipping, calculus, abscesses, tooth crowding and rotation and premortem tooth loss. The later population (Lepenski-Vir III) had less abraded teeth, less premortem tooth loss, but more occlusal caries and enamel hypoplasia. The later population had a smaller, less powerful jaw and smaller teeth. Most of the occlusal area reduction occurred in the molars. It is suggested that innovation and adoption of a neolithic way of life which resulted in a softer diet produced a biomechanically reduced jaw that could no longer accommodate large mesolithic teeth. Maladaption between osseous and dental tissues especially in the posterior teeth is the direct selectional argument presented to explain the reduction of these teeth. Arguments that the dental changes in the Iron Gates are directly due to immigrants from the Near East are refuted by comparing populational-taxonomic variables of the dentition. Dental changes in several variables follow opposite developments in Yugoslavia and the Near East. The changes in dentition between the Yugoslav mesolithic and neolithic periods is seen here as due to microevolution, not gene flow.