TOMB: The Online Map of Bioarchaeology

Al Khiday 2

A Burial from Al Khiday 2
A flexed burial from Al Khiday 2. Image source: missionarcheologiche.it

Buckley et al. 2014, uses dental plaque for more than just assessing diet- they use it to better understand cooking and food preparation methods as well. The site under analysis is Al Khiday 2 located in Sudan, which is a burial ground of pre-Mesolithic, Neolithic and Late Meroitic age. Dentition of the individuals from this site have a range of dental health problems including caries, periapical lesions, ante-mortem tooth loss, enamel hypoplasia and deposits of dental calculus. Samples of dental calculus were taken from 19 individuals, and if possible were divided into two separate parts to allow two different methods of analysis. 14 samples were analysed using thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Basically, these methods allow for identification of organic compounds within the dental calculus. The remaining 16 samples were examined using light microscopy in order to identify organic and inorganic micro-debris. Based on this analysis, they were able to learn more about the diet, cooking and processing techniques of the prehistoric Sudanese. Evidence for smoking food was identified in all of the samples by finding components of charcoal and soot in the dental calculus. However, there was variation within individuals of how much protein was found in the dental plaque, meaning that people had differential access to meat within the community. Differences in the size of starch molecules was also noticed in the different time periods. This means that in different periods, they were processing the food in different ways- some involved breaking up the food sources with ones teeth and some were directly eaten without processing. Further, they found evidence of the plant Cyperus rotundus, which today is considered a weed, in the calculus of these people. In this community, it was used as a resource, potentially a medicine or food.

References: Buckley, S., Usai, D., Jakob, T., Radini, A., & Hardy, K. (2014). Dental Calculus Reveals Unique Insights into Food Items, Cooking and Plant Processing in Prehistoric Central Sudan PLoS ONE, 9 (7) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100808

 


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