Скачать или смотреть Impactful Actions: An Experimental Approach to Understanding Labial Striations on Dental Remains.

by Aristeidis Strimenopoulos (1,2), Erica Rosolani (1,2), Carlos Villa Sola (1,2) & Marina Lozano (2,1)
1 Facultat de Lletres, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Campus Catalunya URV, 43003, Spain
2 Institut Catalá de Paleoecología Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), Zona Educacional 4, Tarragona, 43007, Spain

Detecting patterns and features of enamel alterations related to behavior permits the reconstruction of activities and the understanding of past human practices. The identified dental features, such as enamel chipping and labial striations among others, imply the use of the mouth during the conduction of an activity, thus providing insights into the cognitive level of the studied individuals. Concerning the latter feature, paramasticatory striations can result from the contact of the enamel surface with a harder material, such as a lithic flake, which occurs during the stabilization of an object in the mouth, specifically between the anterior teeth. Notably, the specific practice has been mentioned throughout the lineage of the genus Homo, underlying its prevalence in the behavior during human evolution.

The specific study is laid in the conduction of an experimental procedure to replicate labial striations, which are produced from different raw materials, aiming to understand their morphological differences. The applied raw materials are characterized by different mineral properties (flint, limestone, and quartzite) while originating from diverse geographical latitudes (Spain and the United Kingdom). Furthermore, the existing sample pool consists of both deciduous and permanent teeth, anterior and posterior dentition, while the methodological framework is comprised of the utilization of different pieces of microscopic equipment (an Optical and a 3D Digital microscope), aiming to understand the level of complementation of both of them for the best archaeological interpretation. In this framework, this research aims to provide insights into the identification of the used raw material based on the morphological differentiation of the experimentally produced paramasticastory striations, while advancing methodologically through the combination of different microscopic approaches. The application of this protocol to labial striations from fossil and archaeological teeth will improve our knowledge about the use of teeth as a third hand, providing new approaches to the specific line of research.