Dental Cementum in Anthropology

Presents the latest advances in cementochronology and its use in various anthropological contexts, from ancient fossils to forensic cases.

Stephan Naji (Edited by), William Rendu (Edited by), Lionel Gourichon (Edited by)

9781108477086, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 February 2022

420 pages
25.1 x 17.7 x 2.5 cm, 1.01 kg

Tooth enamel and dentin are the most studied hard tissues used to explore hominin evolution, life history, diet, health, and culture. Surprisingly, cementum (the interface between the alveolar bone and the root dentin) remains the least studied dental tissue even though its unique growth, which is continuous throughout life, has been acknowledged since the 1950s. This interdisciplinary volume presents state-of-the-art studies in cementum analysis and its broad interpretative potential in anthropology. The first section focuses on cementum biology; the second section presents optimized multi-species and standardized protocols to estimate age and season at death precisely. The final section highlights innovative applications in zooarchaeology, paleodemography, bioarchaeology, paleoanthropology, and forensic anthropology, demonstrating how cementochronology can profoundly affect anthropological theories. With a wealth of illustrations of cementum histology and accompanying online resources, this book provides the perfect toolkit for scholars interested in studying past and current human and animal populations.

Part 1. The Biology of Cementum
Introduction: Cementochronology in chronobiology
1. A brief history of cemental annuli research, with emphasis upon Anthropological applications
2. Development and structure of cementum
3. Insights into Cementogenesis from human disease and genetically engineered mouse models
4. A comparative genetic analysis of acellular cementum
5. Pattern of human cementum deposition with a special emphasis on hypercementosis
6. Recent advances on acellular cementum increments composition using synchrotron x-radiation
7. Incremental elemental distribution in chimpanzee cellular cementum: insights from synchrotron x-ray fluorescence and implications for life history inferences
8. Identifying life-history events in dental cementum, a literature review
Part II. Protocols
9. Cementochronology for archaeologists. Experiments and testing for an optimized thin section preparation protocol
10. Optimizing preparation protocols and microscopy for Cementochronology
11. Cementochronology protocol for selecting a region of interest in zooarchaeology
12. Tooth cementum annulations method for determining age-at-death using modern deciduous human teeth: challenges and lessons learned
13. The analysis of tooth cementum for the histological determination of age and season at death on teeth of us active duty military members
14. Preliminary protocol to identify parturitions lines in acellular cementum
15. Toward the non-destructive imaging of cementum annulations using synchrotron x-ray microtomography
16. Non-invasive 3d methods for the study of dental cementum
Part III. Applications
17. Using Cementochronology to discuss the organization of past Neanderthal societies
18. Investigating seasonal competition between hominins and cave hyaenas in the belgian ardennes during the late pleistocene: insights from cementum analyses
19. Cementochronology to the rescue: osteobiography of a middle woodland woman with a combined skeletal dysplasia
20. Estimating a mortality profile of fisher-gatherers in Brazil using Cementochronology
21. Cementochronology: a solution to reconstructing past populations' mortality profiles using individual age-at-death estimates
22. Assessing age-related mortality at petra, jordan using Cementochronology and hazard modeling
23. Shaping age at death distributions by applying tooth cementum analysis to the early medieval graveyard of lauchheim (Germany)
24. Back to the root: the coming of age of Cementochronology
Index.

Subject Areas: Developmental biology [PSC], Physical anthropology [JHMP], Archaeological science, methodology & techniques [HDW]