Diachronic changes in dental health of Bronze Age rural populations from Nahal Refaim, Israel

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Authors

CHOCHOLOVÁ Eva SMITH Patricia EISENBERG Emmanuel KOLSKA HORWITZ Liora DROZDOVÁ Eva

Year of publication 2024
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oa.3319
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oa.3319
Keywords calculus; Canaanite village; caries; dental pathology; enamel hypoplasia; Southern Levant
Description We present the results of a study of dental pathology (specifically dental wear, caries, dental calculus, and enamel hypoplasia) carried out on 1108 teeth and empty alveoli of Bronze Age human populations that inhabited the rural settlement of Nahal Refaim, on the outskirts of the city of Jerusalem. The remains derive from a tomb complex that spans three phases of the period; Intermediate Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age I and Middle Bronze Age II villages that replaced them (ca. 2500–1550?BC). Dental pathology can reflect diet and therefore offers a unique insight into the lifeways of past populations. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which the dental health of this rural population was influenced by the far-reaching socioeconomic changes associated with the regional shift to urbanism by the Middle Bronze Age II. Although constrained by small sample sizes, we found that the pattern of dental pathology varied in a nonlinear fashion over time and have discussed the factors that may have attributed to this variation.
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