0410 Patterns of paleodied and biocultural practices of neolithican ghazal inhabitants
I. SARIE', Laboratory of Bio-anthropology, Jerusalem, Israel

Objectives: This study significantly broadens our understanding of the impact of diachronic changes of subsistence on the health status of the Neolithic people by employing interdisciplinary investigations to assist archaeological, faunal and floral evidence. Methods: The dental and skeletal analysis (diseases; chemical analysis of dental calculus and attrition) of 994 teeth of 146 individuals from the site of Ain Ghazal Neolithic village, in Jordan, yields information on their dietary practices and bio-physical activities. Although it is difficult to document precisely how food affected the people's health or indicate a particular diet as a suggested cause, the severe attrition, micro-wear and periodontal disease suggest heavy mastication of an abrasive diet, heavily dependent on agricultural seed crops and wild fruits. It also sheds lights on food preparation techniques and the influence of diet and biophysical activities on health status. Results: The dental and skeletal analysis indicates a deterioration of the health status of the people of Ain Ghazal at the end of the Pre-pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period together with diseases such as, “tuberculosis, rickets, poratic hyperstosis and cribra orbitalia". Infectious diseases are one of the consequences of the relationship between Neolithic people and animals, through taming, domestication and husbandry, in which many endemic diseases are transmitted. Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostocis are further evidence of severe stress, mainly nutritional, from which the people suffered. Conclusions: People of Ain Ghazal also suffered from severe seasonal stress through malnutrition , as is evident in frequent cases of Dental Enamel Hypoplasia (DEH) (grooves and pits). Contaminated food and diary products as well as fluctuation of adequate subsistence, mainly of pregnant womens areamong the factors causing a high child mortality rate and hypoplasia that affected the people of the Neolithic village.

Seq #40 - Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
9:00 AM-11:00 AM, Saturday, 28 August 2004 Crowne Plaza Hotel SEDIR III

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