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

Informazioni relative al progetto

TRI-DENTUM

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 891511

DOI

10.3030/891511

Progetto chiuso

Data della firma CE 20 Aprile 2020

Data di avvio 1 Febbraio 2021

Data di completamento 31 Gennaio 2023

Finanziato da

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Costo totale

€ 191 149,44

Contributo UE

€ 191 149,44

Coordinato da

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))

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-02-01 al 2023-01-31

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

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.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

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.

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

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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