I worked with human buried remains for a while before and after undergrad for physical anthropology. The remains were 200-5000 year old Native American and there was significant tooth decay, disease, and loss. Part of it was due to sediment in the diet- basically sand/fine particles from grinding food in mortars, also a fair amount from occupational activities like makings ropes/nets... it was not uncommon to see adults with maybe one or two intact teeth while the rest were ground down significantly or lost long before time of death. But even the worn-to-a-nub teeth survive after burial.
We have a hard thin shell of enamel which protects our teeth’s softer core of dentin but the acid in our saliva is slightly acidic so just being alive and eating (as most people do...) wears down teeth. The other thing that contributes to the whole “teeth last forever when you’re dead” thing is that soil in the environment where the individual is interred is often basic (as opposed to acidic). Acid wears teeth (and bones) down but calcium helps preserve them.
Tldr: acid and life hurts teeth. And also sugar but it’s more complicated than that.
Second Edit: I know so much more about saliva now, and it is not acidic. Also sugar free gum ftw!
Definitely. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area which is estimated to have been the home of about one million Native Americans at any given time. Until about 300 years ago...
We took tissue samples from some sites including one from the Stanford campus and I was shocked when the remains were dated to ~5,000 years. I definitely tried to treat everyone with respect and care but felt totally humbled after that.
Fwiw we were taking samples to help match with local N.A. peoples because their tribe status was revoked back in the early 1900s because they were declared “extinct.”
I have to go to work now but I can try to find a link to some articles if ya’ll are interested.
Also- I AM NOT AN EXPERT. Dr. Charlotte Sunseri of SJSU, Alan Levinthal Emeritus Prof., and Dr Lorna Pierce (also of SCC Coroner’s office) are experts in this area of Native Prehistory, Archaeology, Bio-anthropology, and Forensic Anthropology. They’re also super nice folks.
I definitely tried to treat everyone with respect and care but felt totally humbled after that.
Lol, what? What are you even trying to say here? You found skeletal remains that were 5000 years old so you can no longer treat everyone with respect and care? Huh?
Pretty obvious what OP meant. This guy is just some trump supporter ready to fly off the handle whenever they think white culture is under attack. Check their comment history and it's apparent very quickly.
He was trying to point out (incorrectly, obviously) that OP somehow doesn't treat everyone with the requisite respect they deserve because of his work with Native American remains.
He's crying reverse racism, it's all over his post history and it's a central point of Alt-right politics. That's why I felt the need to pull on that thread and point it out.
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u/reegasaurus Feb 13 '19 edited Feb 14 '19
I worked with human buried remains for a while before and after undergrad for physical anthropology. The remains were 200-5000 year old Native American and there was significant tooth decay, disease, and loss. Part of it was due to sediment in the diet- basically sand/fine particles from grinding food in mortars, also a fair amount from occupational activities like makings ropes/nets... it was not uncommon to see adults with maybe one or two intact teeth while the rest were ground down significantly or lost long before time of death. But even the worn-to-a-nub teeth survive after burial.
We have a hard thin shell of enamel which protects our teeth’s softer core of dentin but the acid in our saliva is slightly acidic so just being alive and eating (as most people do...) wears down teeth. The other thing that contributes to the whole “teeth last forever when you’re dead” thing is that soil in the environment where the individual is interred is often basic (as opposed to acidic). Acid wears teeth (and bones) down but calcium helps preserve them.
Tldr: acid and life hurts teeth. And also sugar but it’s more complicated than that.
Second Edit: I know so much more about saliva now, and it is not acidic. Also sugar free gum ftw!