Every bite leaves a mark: how teeth tell the story of our past
The Palaeolithic era, distinguished by the development of stone tools, spanned a period from roughly 3 million to 12 000 years ago. A growing body of evidence suggests that Neandertals, a human species that lived in Europe for more than 200 000 years before becoming extinct, coexisted with anatomically modern humans (AMH). With support from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the 3DFOSSILDIET project examines patterns of dental wear to gain insight into the lives of prehistoric humans.
Dental wear analysis
Teeth are the most durable part of the skeleton. According to project fellow Almudena Estalrrich: “Everything we bite (whether it is food or a set of car keys) leaves a trace in our teeth or in the bones holding them.” Traces left in fossilised teeth can teach us about diet as well as behaviour. For example, we know that Palaeolithic humans explored a wide variety of foods and exhibited behavioural complexity, including using their teeth as a ‘third hand’ to hold, grip and break material. The study of fossilised teeth opens a window to the past, but it is important to preserve these fossils undamaged for future generations to study. To address this concern, the project used Dental Microwear Texture Analysis and dental topographic analysis to study micro- and macro-wear patterns. These are virtual tools that leave fossilised teeth unharmed. As Estalrrich says: “The possibility of exploring human behaviour and diet in the past using new techniques, digital imaging and virtual tools, without damaging the fossils, is fascinating.”
Biocultural insights
What we learn from teeth tells us about the biology of a species, but teeth also inform us about culture. 3DFOSSILDIET investigated themes such as how adult individuals cared for sub-adults, how sub-adults became independent, and what dental wear patterns can teach us about human evolution. With both Neandertals and AMH, researchers found similar dental wear patterns among adults and children. This indicates that children likely learned by imitating adults and developed their independence gradually. Additionally, Estalrrich shares: “Another interesting pattern is that within the group, resources were shared among all the individuals as no differences in the dietary signals were found.” In 2021, a paper on this topic received an award from the Journal of Human Evolution for being among the top 10 most frequently downloaded articles in the journal’s history.
A focus on the Franco-Cantabrian region
The project focused on the Franco-Cantabrian region because of its wealth of well-documented Palaeolithic sites. Research in the region has covered material culture and subsistence strategies during a time when Neandertals were being replaced by our modern human ancestors. These conditions provided a perfect context for the project’s study of dental wear patterns. The extent of what fossilised teeth can teach us about evolution, and in particular human evolution, is still very open. Neandertals and AMH show behavioural similarities, but behavioural patterns in both species appear to vary across time. As Estalrrich suggests, developing a catalogue of features that characterise different time periods would be a valuable next step in tracing the patterns that shape the biocultural evolution of our species.
Keywords
3DFOSSILDIET, Neandertals, fossilised teeth, Franco-Cantabrian region, anatomically modern humans, dental analysis, Dental Microwear Texture Analysis, biocultural evolution
