Abstract
The later prehistoric subsistence-settlement pattern in the Kentucky Lake Reservoir (KLR) of northern west-central Tennessee is of interest as human occupation inexplicably terminates by AD 1450 as part of a larger regional depopulation. Antemortem tooth loss (ATL) collectively and by tooth type was identified in four site samples from the KLR. These are a Late Woodland (AD 600-900) sample (Hobbs) and three Middle Mississippian period (AD 1100- 1400) hierarchically organized and presumptively maize agriculturalist samples (Link/Slayden, Gray Farm , Thompson Village). ATL prevalence in the Hobbs sample is consistent with a native crop and seasonal foraging economy. The ATL in the Link sample is more congruent with the pre-maize Late Woodland sample than the essentially contemporaneous Gray Farm site sample. Thompson Village, a later-dated satellite community of the Gray Farm polity, exhibits significantly fewer ATL than the Gray Farm sample. This may flag climate-influenced agricultural shortfall of dietary carbohydrates later in the occupation sequence. Additionally, males in the Gray Farm site sample have significantly more ATL than males in the other two Mississippian samples. The patterns suggest regional, possibly shortfall mitigated, differences in maize intensification with a polity-specific male-focused maize consumption in the Gray Site.
Highlights
Oral pathology has frequently been an effective disease (Baelum et al, 1986; Kida et al, 2006; Mülbarometer of community health and an attestable ler & Hussein, 2017; Niessen & Weyant, 1989; Ong, marker of subsistence strategy in archaeological 1998; Shaffer et al, 2013; van der Velden et al, contexts where material culture provides the inter- 2015), there are other causes
The trend towards maize intensification corally later-founded satellite community of the Gray occurring with sociopolitical complexity is a gen- Farm polity
It is possible that Gray Farm reflects a eral pattern within the Mississippian period
Summary
Oral pathology has frequently been an effective disease (Baelum et al, 1986; Kida et al, 2006; Mülbarometer of community health and an attestable ler & Hussein, 2017; Niessen & Weyant, 1989; Ong, marker of subsistence strategy in archaeological 1998; Shaffer et al, 2013; van der Velden et al, contexts where material culture provides the inter- 2015), there are other causes 2021 │ Volume 34│ Issue 02 cal samples from northern west-central Tennessee tories that economically engaged in cultivating did not identify a clear temporal trend of caries native seed crops as well as foraging strategies (i.e., increase with agriculturalization suggesting rethe Eastern Agricultural Complex) (Bense ,2016; gional variability in the reliance of maize relative Fritz, 1990; Nassaney, 2001; Scarry, 1993) The geographic distribution and elsewhere in the Mississippian world
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