In due time I hope that we will have some scholars of dental paleopathology
in the group.
In the meantime I, who know very little on the subject, refer to
Lukacs JR. Dental paleopathology: Methods for reconstructing dietary
patterns. In: Isçan MY, Kennedy KAR. Reconstruction of life from the
skeleton. New York, Wiley-Liss 1989
who states that caries rates were low in prehistoric hunter-gatherers,
intermediate in early farmers and highest in full-blown agriculturalists. A
later paper that I came across also supports a role of cereal starch in
caries:
Littleton, J. Frohlich, B. Fish-eaters and farmers: dental pathology in the
Arabian Gulf. Am J Phys Anthropol 1993; 92: 427-47.
Abstract: Twelve skeletal samples, previously published, from the Arabian
Gulf have been used to trace differences in diet and subsistence patterns
through an analysis of dental pathology. The skeletons date from 3,000 BC
to AD 1,500 and cover a variety of geographical locations: off-shore
islands, Eastern Arabia, and Oman. The dental conditions analyzed are
attrition, caries, calculus, abscessing, and antemortem tooth loss (AMTL).
Results indicate four basic patterns of dental disease which, while not
mutually exclusive, correspond to four basic subsistence patterns. Marine
dependency, represented by the Ras el-Hamra population, is indicated by
severe attrition, low caries rates, wear-caused abscessing, and a lack of
AMTL. The second group of dental diseases--moderate attrition and calculus,
low rates of caries, wear-caused abscessing, and low-moderate rates of
AMTL--affects populations subsisting on a mixture of pastoralism or fishing
and agriculture (Failaka, Umm an-Nar, Bronze Age Maysar, Bronze Age Shimal,
and Iron Age Galilah). Mixed farming populations (Iron Age Maysar and
Islamic Bahrain) experienced low-moderate attrition, high rates of caries
and calculus, abscessing due to caries, and severe AMTL. The final group of
dental diseases affects populations practicing intensive gardening (Bronze
and Iron Age Bahrain, and Sites 3 and 5, Ras al-Khaimah). These groups
experienced slight attrition, high rates of caries, low rates of calculus
deposition, and severe AMTL.

Sorry if I overemphasized what may already have been clear to you.

Staffan

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Staffan Lindeberg M.D. Ph.D. Dept of Community Health Sciences, Lund
University, Mailing address: Dr Staffan Lindeberg, Primary Health Care
Centre, Sjobo, S-22738 Sweden, +46 416 28140, Fax +46 416 18395
http://www.panix.com/~donwiss/paleodiet/sl1.shtml
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