Investigating food and diet in Mesolithic and Neolithic Europe : an exploratory approach using dental microwear analysis
This thesis concerns human diet in the European stone-age, arid how dental microwear analysis can be used to investigate Mesolithic (late hunter-gatherer) dietary. behaviour and provide evidence for the introduction of agricultural foods in the Neolithic (early agricultural) period. Dental microwear analysis is the study of microscopic patterns of tooth wear, which manifest as pits and scratches and are caused by hard particles in food. A review of the available literature revealed that the existing techniques for documenting microwear data required improvement. To this end, a new computer software library was developed. The review of dental microwear literature also highlighted that different studies disagree about how to relate the microwear patterns to the foods that caused them to form. Hence experiments were conducted that attempted to establish which variables responded to the parameters of the wear particles. It is proposed that the width of the microscopic scratches is closely related to the size of the wear particles. Having established this, aspects of diet during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods were explored. It was found, with some exceptions, that Neolithic individuals have wider scratches
McLaughlin, Thomas Rowan
Investigating food and diet in Mesolithic and Neolithic Europe : an exploratory approach using dental microwear analysis. This thesis concerns human diet in the European stone-age, arid how dental microwear analysis can be used to investigate Mesolithic (late hunter-gatherer) dietary. behaviour and provide evidence for the introduction of agricultural foods in the Neolithic (early agricultural) period. Dental microwear analysis is the study of microscopic patterns of tooth wear, which manifest as pits and scratches and are caused by hard particles in food. A review of the available literature revealed that the existing techniques for documenting microwear data required improvement. To this end, a new computer software library was developed. The review of dental microwear literature also highlighted that different studies disagree about how to relate the microwear patterns to the foods that caused them to form. Hence experiments were conducted that attempted to establish which variables responded to the parameters of the wear particles. It is proposed that the width of the microscopic scratches is closely related to the size of the wear particles. Having established this, aspects of diet during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods were explored. It was found, with some exceptions, that Neolithic individuals have wider scratches
investigating food diet mesolithic neolithic europe exploratory use dental analysis concern human_diet european stone_age arid dental analysis use_investigate mesolithic late hunter_gatherer dietary behaviour provide_evidence introduction agricultural food neolithic_early agricultural period dental analysis study microscopic pattern tooth_wear manifest pit scratch cause hard particle food review available_literature reveal exist technique document data require improvement end new computer software library develop review dental literature also_highlight different study disagree relate pattern food cause form hence conduct attempted establish variable respond parameter wear particle propose width microscopic scratch closely_related size wear particle establish aspects diet mesolithic neolithic periods explore find exception neolithic individual wider scratch