Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T04:54:44.698Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Second Drilled Tooth from Prehistoric Western North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Christy G. Turner II
Christy G. Turner II*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-2402; [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The burial of a young adult woman with a drilled molar tooth was excavated in 1965 in northern Arizona (Museum of Northern Arizona NA9099.B5; Pueblo IV, A.D. 1300–1600). The drilling angle and location suggest that the therapeutic or palliative procedure was done while the woman was alive, and probably in pain because the drilled hole occurred at the bottom of a large necrotic cavity involving about one quarter of the occlusal surface. The drilled hole exited at the crown-root junction near a small alveolar buccal abscess. With painful and unhealthy dental caries on the rise as dependency on agriculture increased through time, it is suggested that this case and one other mark the beginning practice of primitive technical dentistry in prehistoric western North America.

Resumen

Resumen

En 1965 se excavó en el norte de Arizona el entierro de una mujer adulta joven quien tínia un molar taladrado (Museo de Arizona del Norte NA9099.B5; Pueblo IV, 1300–1600 d.C). El ángulo de taladrado y su ubicación pareceráan indicar que se había realizado un procedimiento terapéutico o paliativo cuando la mujer estaba viva, quien probablemente sufrió dolor ya que el hoyo taladrado se encuentra en la parte inferior de una cavidad necrótica grande que abarca cerca de una cuarta parte de la superficie de oclusión. La salida de la perforación se encuentra en la unión entre la raíz y la corona cerca de un pequeño absceso alveolar bucal. Al incrementarse la dependencia en la agricultura a través del tiempo los individuos debieron sufrir dolorosas y antihigiénicas caries, por lo que se plantea que este caso y otro adicional evidencian el inicio de una técnica odontológica primitiva en el oeste de Norteamérica.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , April 2004 , pp. 356 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Kanner, Leo 1928 Folklore of the Teeth. Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar
Milner, George R., and Larsen, Clark S. 1991 Teeth as Artifacts of Human Behavior. Intentional Mutilation and Accidental Modification. In Advances in Dental Anthropology, edited by Kelley, M. A. and Larsen, Clark Spencer, pp. 357–378. Wiley-Liss, New York.Google Scholar
Schollmeyer, Karen Gust, and Turner, Christy G. II 2004 Dental Caries, Prehistoric Diet and the Pithouse to Pueblo Transition in Southwestern Colorado. American Antiquity, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, S. Alan 1965 Sycamore Canyon Project—NA9099 Preliminary Report. Manuscript on file, Museum of Northern Arizona, Archaeological Site Records, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Turner, Christy G. II 1993 Southwest Indians: Prehistory Through Dentition. National Geographic Society Research & Exploration 9:32–53.Google Scholar
Turner, Christy G. II 1999 Dental Transfigurement and Its Potential for Explaining the Evolution of Post-Archaic Indian Culture in the American Southwest. Dental Anthropology 13(4): 1–6.Google Scholar
Turner, Christy G., II, and Cacciatore, Erin 1998 Interproximal Tooth Grooves in Pacific Basin, East Asian, and New World Populations. Anthropological Science 106 (Supplement): 85–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Christy G., II, and Turner, Jacqueline A. 1999 Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. Google Scholar
White, Tim D. 1992 Prehistoric Cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR-2346. Princeton University Press, Princeton. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Tim D., DeGusta, David, Richards, Gary D., and Baker, Steven G. 1997 Brief Communication: Prehistoric Dentistry in the American Southwest: A Drilled Canine from Sky Aerie. Colorado. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 103:409–414.Google Scholar