生物考古学视野下人类的牙齿与饮食

Human tooth and diet from a bioarcheological perspective

饮食在人类文化的起源与演变中扮演着重要角色,而牙齿作为饮食信息的主要载体,从不同角度为复原古代人类饮食谱系提供了可能。作为人类咀嚼行为、饮食结构及生业模式的直接反映,口腔疾病和牙齿表面微观痕迹的体质人类学分析显得尤其重要。牙齿中微量元素和稳定同位素的检测,对于揭示古代人类的迁徙与流动、生命在不同阶段的摄食行为与营养状况、农业的起源与发展等问题具有着不可估量的作用。本文在回顾考古遗址中出土人类牙齿的重要性及研究方法的多样性基础上,结合牙齿的生长发育特征,绘制了不同牙位各生长序列所匹配的人类年龄图谱,并参照此图谱,提出了全新的牙本质连续切片取样方法。本文构想从体质人类学与碳、氮等稳定同位素分析的角度出发,以牙本质的连续切片、肢骨及肋骨等人体组织为关联式地研究材料,在探索古人类个体生命史的基础上展望“代际考古”。

Diet plays an important role in the origin and evolution of human culture.As the main carrier of dietary information,teeth provide the possibility to reconstruct the dietary lineage of ancient human from different perspectives.As a direct reflection of human chewing behavior,dietary structure and living pattern,the physical anthropological analysis of oral diseases and microscopic traces on the surface of teeth is particularly important.The detection of trace elements and stable isotopes in teeth plays an immeasurable role in revealing the migration and flow of ancient human beings,the feeding behavior and nutritional status in different stages of life,and the origin and development of agriculture.In this paper,based on the review of the importance of human teeth unearthed from archaeological sites and the diversity of research methods,combined with the characteristics of tooth growth and development,we draw the human age map of the dentin growth sequence matched by different dentin positions.Based on this map,we proposed a new method of dentin continuous section sampling.This paper proposes that from the angle of physical anthropology and stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen,using continuous sections of dentin,limb bones,ribs and other human tissues as related materials,on the basis of exploring the individual life history of ancient human beings,the research of“intergenerational archaeology”is prospected.