Dental status of Napoleon's Great Army's (1812) mass burial of soldiers in Vilnius: childhood peculiarities and adult dietary habits

Abstract

A mass grave of the soldiers of Napoleon's Great Army, containing no less than 3269 individuals who died during the retreat from Russia in December 1812, was uncovered during an archaeological rescue excavation in 2002 in Vilnius, Lithuania. General dental analysis, including that of dental wear, tooth loss, caries, calculus, and periodontal diseases and abscesses, was used to evaluate the oral health status and possible dietary patterns of individuals who represented recruits from almost all of Western and Central Europe. Growth conditions in childhood were studied by scoring of linear enamel hypoplasia. In all, 293 individuals (6528 teeth) were selected for the analysis; 20-30 year old males made up the majority of the sample. Their general dental status is characteristic of young individuals: low dental attrition and antemortem tooth loss, as well as low prevalence of calculus and abscesses. The caries rate was average compared with late Medieval/early industrial populations and typical for individuals with diverse diets. However, a considerable amount of pulp caries and a high number of carious teeth in some individuals indicate consumption of cariogenic products (e.g. sugar, sweet drinks) and poor oral hygiene. The frequency and severity of hypoplasia was lower compared with other populations of that time, suggesting the selection of the fittest individuals for military service; this correlates with the historically known selection criteria of that period.

Dental diseases of human skeletal remains from the early-modern period of Kumejima Island, Okinawa, Japan

“…AMTL results from many causes, including dental caries, periodontal disease, attrition, trauma, and ritual tooth extraction; however, it has been suggested that AMTL is often caused by dental caries (Sakura, 1964;Lukacs, 1995;Hillson, 2001;Cucina and Tiesler, 2003;Palubeckaite et al, 2006;Oyamada et al, 2007a). In the case of Kumejima, a tradition of ritual tooth extraction did not exist and no large battles took place in the early-modern times that may have resulted in trauma-related tooth loss (Nakahara, 1990;Doi, 2003;Uezu, 2007).…”

“…Therefore, many authors have investigated the prevalence and timing of LEH in a range of prehistoric cranial series (e.g. Guatelli-Steinberg and Lukacs, 1999;Cucina et al, 2006;Larsen, 2006;Palubeckaite et al, 2006;Belcastro et al, 2007;Boldsen, 2007).…”

Diet and Dental Caries in Post-Medieval London

“…Deerr (1950) estimates the sugar consumption in kilograms per person per year had increased from 1.8 kg in 1700 to 3.6 kg in 1750, reaching 8.2 kg per person by 1800. In Britain, sugar consumption per person had reached 6.7 kg/annum by 1792 (Palubeckaite et al 2006), indicative of growing rates of sugar consumption throughout the eighteenth century (Mitchell and Deane 1962). Later, the British doubled their consumption of sugar during the nineteenth century (Deerr 1950), consuming mostly cane sugar imported from the Caribbean Sea.…”

“…Many researchers posit that an increased dependence upon carbohydrates and the introduction of refined sugars have increased the rates of caries diachronically for many human groups (e.g., Burt 1993;Hardwick 1960;Mayhall 1970;Miura et al 1997;Moore 1993;Oranje et al 1935-37;Palubeckaite et al 2006;Price 1936;Russell et al 1961;Saunders et al 1997;Whittaker and Molleson 1996).…”

The association between periodontal disease and periosteal lesions in the St. Mary Graces cemetery, London, England A.D. 1350-1538

“…Periodontal disease is one of the most common chronic diseases in living populations (Abdellatif and Burt, 1987), with severe forms affecting an estimated 10-15% of people worldwide and mild forms of the disease affecting as much as 90% of people in some populations (Beck et al, 1996;Pihlstrom et al, 2005). Numerous bioarchaeological investigations have also identified periodontal disease at varying frequencies in skeletal samples from past populations (e.g., Clarke et al, 1986;Kerr, 1994;Chazel et al, 2005;Eshed et al, 2006;Oztunc et al, 2006;Palubeckaite et al, 2006;Lieverse et al, 2007).…”