An assessment of linear enamel hypoplasia defects in Early Archaic Texan hunter-gatherers
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Anthropology, Dentistry
- Keywords
- bioarchaeology, stress, pre-agriculture, foragers, Texas, weaning
- Copyright
- © 2018 Berbesque et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. An assessment of linear enamel hypoplasia defects in Early Archaic Texan hunter-gatherers. PeerJ Preprints 6:e3509v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3509v1
Abstract
Digital photographs taken under controlled conditions were used to examine the incidence of linear enamel hypoplasia defects (LEHs) in burials from the Buckeye Knoll archaeological site (41VT98 Victoria county, Texas), which spans the Early to Late Archaic Period (ca. 2500-6500 BP uncorrected radiocarbon). The majority (68 of 74 burials) date to the Texas Early Archaic, including one extremely early burial dated to 8,500 BP. The photogrammetric data collection method also results in an archive for Buckeye Knoll, a significant rare Archaic period collection that has been repatriated and reinterred. We analyzed the incidence and developmental timing of LEHs in permanent canines. Fifty-nine percent of permanent canines (n = 54) had at least one defect. There were no significant differences in LEH frequency between the maxillary and mandibular canines (U = 640.5, n1 = 37, n2 = 43, p = .110). The sample studied (n=92) had an overall mean of 0.93 LEH defect per tooth, with a median of one defect, and a mode of zero defects. Average age at first insult was 3.92 (median = 4.00, range = 2.5 – 5.4) and the mean age of all insults per individual was 4.18 years old (range = 2.5 - 5.67). Age at first insult is consistent with onset of weaning stress—the weaning age range for hunter-gatherer societies is 1- 4.5. Having an earlier age of first insult was associated with having more LEHs (n = 54, rho = -0.381, p = 0.005).
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
Buckeye Knoll developmental timing of LEH
In depth data from Buckeye Knoll LEH defects only. Includes counts, and calculated timing of defects (according to Reid and Dean 2000).
GHHD with Buckeye for Comparison
Published data ( http://global.sbs.ohio-state.edu/western_hemisphere_module.htm ) older than 3000 years on average for comparative purposes with Buckeye Knoll data recoded (coding scheme available at link above along with data). Filter variable (select 1) selects for sites with average site age > 3000 years. LPI = Left permanent canine for all sites but Buckeye Knoll, where we included all canines in the analysis.