Abstract
Regional differences of dental microwear among four small areas on the heavily worn occlusal surface of a mandibular M2 of an adult male from Neolithic Japan were investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The M2 specimen was cast using a high-resolution epoxy resin under low pressure for SEM, and the cast specimen was sputter-coated with gold. Among the four regions of the M2, two (facets 3 and 9) showed higher proportions of pits (78.6% and 75.0%, respectively), and the two others (lingual marginal facet 7n, and the inner side of facet 7n) showed lower proportions of pits (5.6% and 33.3%, respectively). The two pitted regions seem to reflect the processing of hard foods, and the two other regions with higher frequencies of striations might reflect exposures to less gritty, softer foods. The variation of these pits and striations suggests that the Jomon subsisted on stone-processed hard foods, with coarse grain sizes of sand in foods that included tuberous roots, animal meats with bones, and clams. The analyses of regional differences of dental microwear will develop important ways to study tooth use and past diets.
Highlights
Regional differences of dental microwear among four small areas on the heavily worn occlusal surface of a mandibular M2 of an adult male from Neolithic Japan were investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM)
Macroscopic tooth wear has been investigated with relation to tooth use and diets among numerous different cultures, and various tooth-wear scoring systems have been devised to record the range and pattern of variation (e.g., Bullington, 1991; Hinton, 1981; Molnar 1971; Scott, 1978; Walker, 1978)
While my previous study reported overall observations on dental microwear of late stone age (Neolithic age) and early modern people (Hojo, 1989), the present study identifies regional difference of dental microwear features on four small occlusal areas of a heavily worn occlusal surface of an M2 of Neolithic Japan using Microwear Image Analyzing Software Version 2.2β (Ungar, 1996)
Summary
An M2 from Neolithic Japan was of an adult male excavated from the Kakiwara shell mound in western Kyusyu Japan (Matsuno et al, 1967). To avoid damage to the tooth, a high-resolution cast specimen was used. This is because of the risk during the dehydration process or in the specimen chamber of the SEM (scanning electron microscope) that teeth can be broken.
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