Sex diff erences in Late Iron Age Northeast Estonia as indicated in dental pathologies and enamel hypoplasia

Abstract

Study of dental pathologies is important in investigating the health and diets of past populations. Dental pathologies of adult peoples show nutritional and hygienic habits in adulthood, but childhood metabolic stresses can be observed in the occurrence of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH). Dental hard tissue pathologies (caries, pre mortem tooth loss, abscesses, calculus, reduction of alveolar bone, molar attrition) and LEH were observed over 15 years in individuals from Jõuga cemetery (11th–16th cc. Northeast Estonia). The aim of the study was to trace sexual differences in diet and subsistence patterns through an analysis of dental pathology.