Enamel Hypoplasias in Archaeological Skeletal Remains

Schultz, Michael; Carli-Thiele, Petra; Schmidt-Schultzf, Tyede H.; Kierdorf, Uwe; Kierdorf, Horst; Teegen, Wolf-Rüdiger; Kreutz, Kerstin

doi:10.1007/978-3-7091-7496-8_16

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…LEH are bands of decreased enamel thickness and provide a nearly indelible indicator of stress during tooth crown formation spanning infancy and childhood. These defects are associated with acute forms of stress including infection, inadequate nutrition, and weanling diarrhea (Goodman and Rose, 1991;Schultz et al, 1998). LEH were observed macroscopically and under 103 magnification using a hand-help loupe to help define normal perikymata variations versus hypoplastic enamel (Guatelli-Steinberg, 2003).…”

Section: Subadult Systemic Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contact in the Andes: Bioarchaeology of systemic stress in colonial Mórrope, Peru

Klaus

Tam

2008

American J Phys Anthropol

121

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The biocultural interchange between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres beginning in the late fifteenth century initiated an unprecedented adaptive transition for Native Americans. This article presents findings from the initial population biological study of contact in the Central Andes of Peru using human skeletal remains. We test the hypothesis that as a consequence of Spanish colonization, the indigenous Mochica population of Mórrope on the north coast of Peru experienced elevated systemic biological stress. Using multivariate statistical methods, we examine childhood stress reflected in the prevalence of linear enamel hypoplasias and porotic hyperostosis, femoral growth velocity, and terminal adult stature. Nonspecific periosteal infection prevalence and D(30+)/D(5+) ratio estimations of female fertility characterized adult systemic stress. Compared to the late pre-Hispanic population, statistically significant patterns of increased porotic hyperostosis and periosteal inflammation, subadult growth faltering, and depressed female fertility indicate elevated postcontact stress among both children and adults in Mórrope. Terminal adult stature was unchanged. A significant decrease in linear enamel hypoplasia prevalence may not indicate improved health, but reflect effects of high-mortality epidemic disease. Various lines of physiological, archaeological, and ethnohistoric evidence point to specific socioeconomic and microenvironmental factors that shaped these outcomes, but the effects of postcontact population aggregation in this colonial town likely played a fundamental role in increased morbidity. These results inform a model of postcontact coastal Andean health outcomes on local and regional scales and contribute to expanding understandings of the diversity of indigenous biological variation in the postcontact Western Hemisphere.

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Section: Subadult Systemic Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contact in the Andes: Bioarchaeology of systemic stress in colonial Mórrope, Peru

Klaus

Tam

2008

American J Phys Anthropol

121

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“…The emphasis in such reviews is the relationship between changing prevalence of LEH and changes in subsistence patterns or differences in socioeconomic or ritual status. Sex differences in LEH prevalance are not usually addressed in these volumes or in recent dental anthropology publications (Hillson, 1996;Schultz et al, 1998). By contrast, Larsen's (1997) ''Bioarchaeology'' briefly summarizes sex differences in prevalence of enamel defects in archaeological skeletal series, and characterizes them as highly variable.…”

Section: Background Sex Differences In Enamel Hypoplasia: a Brief Hismentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting sex differences in enamel hypoplasia in human and non-human primates: Developmental, environmental, and cultural considerations

Guatelli‐Steinberg

Lukacs

1999

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

105

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The purpose of this review is to provide a synoptic, critical evaluation of the evidence of, and potential etiological factors contributing to, sex differences in the expression of enamel hypoplasia (EH). Specifically, this review considers theoretical expectations and empirical evidence bearing on two central issues. The first of these is the impact of a theorized inherent male vulnerability to physiological stress on sex differences in EH. The second issue is the potential contribution to sex differences in EH of intrinsic differences in male and female enamel composition and development. To address this first issue, EH frequencies by sex are examined in samples subject to a high degree of physiological stress. Based on the concept of inherent male vulnerability (or female buffering), males in stressful environments would be expected to exhibit higher EH frequencies than females. This expectation is evaluated in light of cultural practices of sex-biased investment that mediate the relationship between environmental stress and EH expression. Defects forming prenatally afford an opportunity to study this relationship without the confounding effects of sex-biased postnatal investment. Data bearing on this issue derive from previously conducted studies of EH in permanent and deciduous teeth in both modern and archaeological samples as well as from new data on Indian schoolchildren. To address the second issue, fundamental male-female enamel differences are evaluated for their potential impact on EH expression. A large sex difference in the duration of canine crown formation in non-human primates suggests that male canines may have greater opportunity to record stress events than those of females. This expectation is examined in great apes, whose canines often record multiple episodes of stress and are sexually dimorphic in crown formation times. With respect to the first issue, in most studies, sex differences in EH prevalence are statistically nonsignificant. However, when sex differences are significant, there is a slight trend for them to be greater in males than in females, suggesting a weak influence of greater male vulnerability. Cultural practices of sex-biased investment in children appear to have greater impact on EH expression than does male vulnerability/female buffering. With respect to the second issue, sex differences in the composition and development of enamel were reviewed and determined to have limited or unknown impact on EH expression. Of these factors, only the duration of crown formation was expected to affect EH expression by sex within the great apes. The data support an association between higher defect counts in the canines of great ape males relative to those of females that may be the result of longer crown formation times in the canines of great ape males. This review concludes with an assessment of the nature of the evidence currently available to examine these issues and suggests future avenues for research focused on elucidating them.

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“…pit-type, plane-type, and furrow-type [linear enamel hypoplasia, (LEH)] hypoplasia (Berten, 1895;Hillson, 1996). Hypoplasia formation has been related to the intensity and duration of stress events, the number of affected ameloblasts, and their position along the forming tooth crown (Berten, 1895;Hillson and Bond, 1997;Schultz et al, 1998;Fitz-Gerald et al, 2006;Witzel et al, 2006). It has been hypothesized that furrow-type hypoplasia represents a less severe growth disruption than plane-type hypoplasia; however, clear evidence supporting this view is lacking (Hillson, 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights from the inside: Histological analysis of abnormal enamel microstructure associated with hypoplastic enamel defects in human teeth

Witzel

Kierdorf

Schultz

et al. 2008

American J Phys Anthropol

100

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We studied the abnormalities in enamel microstructure associated with enamel hypoplasia in human teeth from the early medieval (5th-7th century AD) cemetery of Barbing, Germany, using light and scanning electron microscopy. The main aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that by analyzing the microstructure of fully formed enamel it is possible to reconstruct the reaction pattern of secretory ameloblasts to stress events leading to enamel hypoplasia. From the histological findings, a sequence of increasing impairment of secretory ameloblast function involving three thresholds was deduced. Surpassing of each of these thresholds is assumed to result in characteristic changes in enamel microstructure attributable to specific functional/morphological alterations of secretory ameloblasts. Based on our results we propose a model identifying the principal factors influencing the reaction of secretory ameloblasts to stress. The present study demonstrates that by including microscopic analysis in the study of enamel hypoplasia, it is possible to obtain a more complete picture of the formation of these developmental defects than is possible by inspection of crown surface features alone, and to draw more substantiated conclusions about the possible nature of developmental defects of enamel.

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Enamel Hypoplasias in Archaeological Skeletal Remains

Cited by 19 publications

References 33 publications

Contact in the Andes: Bioarchaeology of systemic stress in colonial Mórrope, Peru

Contact in the Andes: Bioarchaeology of systemic stress in colonial Mórrope, Peru

Interpreting sex differences in enamel hypoplasia in human and non-human primates: Developmental, environmental, and cultural considerations

Insights from the inside: Histological analysis of abnormal enamel microstructure associated with hypoplastic enamel defects in human teeth

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