Inferring Past Human Diets through a three-fold approach: Dental Microwear, micro-residues within Dental Calculus and Erosion Patterns of the Temporomandibular joint (TMJ)

Projektinformationen

TRI-DENTUM

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 891511

DOI

10.3030/891511

Projekt abgeschlossen

EK-Unterschriftsdatum 20 April 2020

Startdatum 1 Februar 2021

Enddatum 31 Januar 2023

Finanziert unter

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Gesamtkosten

€ 191 149,44

EU-Beitrag

€ 191 149,44

Koordiniert durch

UNIVERSITAT ZURICH
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TRI-DENTUM (Inferring Past Human Diets through a three-fold approach: Dental Microwear, micro-residues within Dental Calculus and Erosion Patterns of the Temporomandibular joint (TMJ))

Berichtszeitraum: 2021-02-01 bis 2023-01-31

Zusammenfassung vom Kontext und den Gesamtzielen des Projekts

The TRI-DENTUM project aimed to investigate past human diets from an evolutionary perspective. It involved research in archaeology, biology, dentistry, and evolutionary medicine. The main aim was to build an innovative and multidisciplinary method to infer past human diets from the examination of dental remains. The diet of selected individuals recovered from two medieval cemeteries had to be studied and diet and dental status had to be reconstructed through an original, three-fold approach. Three independent analyses were applied: macroscopic analysis, radiology, and proteomics.
It is important to know how dental diseases evolved and the role of diet and behaviour in the process. This could potentially ameliorate dental conditions in the present populations.
Documenting oral diseases in ancient human remains is the first step toward a thorough reconstruction of the ancient epidemiology of these diseases.
The results of this project are the first step towards a more in-depth approach, including a larger number of archaeological sites. The main objective was to infer the dietary habits of medieval populations based on a combined method including the analysis of dental pathologies in selected individuals; analysis of dental calculus and analysis of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) of the same individuals.
Since the two sites have different chronological dates, it was possible to apply an evolutionary approach when interpreting the results from dental paleo-pathologies and from ancient proteins retrieved from dental calculus.

Arbeit, die ab Beginn des Projekts bis zum Ende des durch den Bericht erfassten Berichtszeitraums geleistet wurde, und die wichtigsten bis dahin erzielten Ergebnisse

The datasets comprising data on dental pathologies and analysis of dental calculus were completed. All dentitions were photographed and studied.
Samples of calculus were collected and processed. Proteomic analysis was performed, and data is being processed at the moment.
All TMJs were either radiographed or CT scanned, and data is still being processed.
In terms of dissemination, one scientific article is under review at the moment, whereas two other articles are being prepared.
All raw data will be available for future use and be either published along with the papers or deposited in public data repositories.

Fortschritte, die über den aktuellen Stand der Technik hinausgehen und voraussichtliche potenzielle Auswirkungen (einschließlich der bis dato erzielten sozioökonomischen Auswirkungen und weiter gefassten gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen des Projekts)

The TRI-DENTUM project used an innovative method to study ancient dentitions. This method combines multiple analysis to achieve a holistic view on oral pathologies and diet in the past.
This can positively impact the field of anthropology. Moreover, the multidisciplinary aspect of this project has the potential to bridge the gap between very distant fields, such as medicine and anthropology.

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