[Sca-cooks] Using tooth tarter to determine medieval (among other) diets
Stefan li Rous
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Mon Jun 4 21:20:03 PDT 2012
From the MedievalTrivia list. An interesting article on using tarter
to get evidence of ancient, including medieval diets.
<<< Many ancient human teeth, including specimens tens of thousands of
years old, still hold onto tiny pieces of food -- and even bacteria.
Anthropologists are studying the tartar attached to ancient human
teeth to learn more about the plants people ate and the pathogens they
carried long ago.>>>
<<< Seeds and grains often degrade slowly and animal bones typically
last even longer. But finding direct evidence of vegetable consumption
is more difficult. Vegetables such as cabbage and carrots were
important foods in medieval Europe, but evidence to confirm their
consumption is hard to come by. Reconstructing the full diet for
people living in earlier periods is even more difficult. >>>
On dental plaque (mostly) and Neanderthal diet:
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-dental-calculus-clues-ancient-human.html
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at: http://www.florilegium.org ****
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