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Ban Non Wat: An update on the lives of late prehistoric mainland Southeast Asians
ABSTRACTS / HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology 64 (2013) 142–162
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of subsistence and dietary practices using dental markers of diet. Caries rates are relatively high for a Polynesian population; 11.9% of permanent teeth had carious lesions; 61.4% of adults had at least one carious lesion. By-tooth analysis of periodontal disease indicated a relatively low prevalence of septal changes (61.7% healthy), but no adult individuals had all septal areas healthy; general periodontal reactions occurred in almost the entire population. Men showed significantly higher rates of periodontitis than women (p ≤ 0.001). The degree of macrowear follows general age trends, but there are no significant sex differences. Of the 743 adult teeth examined for chipping, significantly more anterior teeth were chipped than posterior teeth (p = 0.013), indicating a greater focus on incisal shearing and anterior tooth–tool use compared to chewing. Calculus is present in almost all adults. Antemortem tooth loss was relatively rare; only 8.2% of adult teeth were lost before death. Intra-population trends regarding age and sex are presented, as are inter-population comparisons between other Polynesian samples. The results are discussed against a background of ethnographic and archaeological literature, which suggest a typical Tongan diet was centered on well-cooked, carbohydrate-rich root vegetables. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2013.02.041 Ban Non Wat: An update on the lives of late prehistoric mainland Southeast Asians N. Tayles*, S. Halcrow, C. King, A. Clark, A. Foster, N. Harris (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand), [email protected] The late prehistoric Southeast Asian site of Ban Non Wat, with 630 burials, has allowed detailed, multifaceted bioarchaeological research into the lives of the people represented. Here we review findings to date, including demography, immigration, diet, health, patterns of physical activity and skeletal evidence of mortuary practices. The demographic data suggest population growth in the early and late phases at the site, although the patterns of mortality also suggest that the late phase population was contending with an epidemiological problem, possibly malaria. Evidence from strontium isotopes suggests immigration is not the explanation for the population growth. Dietary evidence from carbon isotopes in dental enamel supports an increasing contribution of rice to the diet until the late period, when it appears to reduce. Unfortunately, this period also had the poorest skeletal preservation, reducing the available evidence. In the early and middle periods, non-specific health indicators in adults, linear enamel hypoplasia and subperiosteal lesions, varied over time in a complex manner but physical activity shows a consistent pattern. Mortuary practices inferred from skeletal positions show increasing variation in burial contexts over time until the late period, when they reduced again. Overall the research is suggesting strongly that the lives of the people at Ban Non Wat improved until the latest period of prehistory, when iron appears at the site and climate change occurred. Research on pathology is yet to be completed. The variability in the evidence shows the human biological response was complex and a final interpretation awaits completion of the project. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2013.02.042 Description of jar burial practice at the Teouma Lapita cemetery (Efate, Vanuatu) and preliminary comparisons with Southeast Asia jar burial traditions F. Valentin* (CNRS (UMR 7041), France), J. Choi, J. Kerner (University of Paris 1, Paris, France), M. Spriggs, S. Bedford (Australian National University, Canberra, Australia), H. Buckley (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand), [email protected] The Teouma (Efate, Vanuatu) cemetery, dated to c. 3000 cal BP, has yielded more than 65 mortuary contexts, including several Lapita pots enclosing human remains. This paper proposes a description of the practice and of its association with the other funerary features as well as an interpretation of its place within the complicated and multi-stagial mortuary protocol recognised at the site. Preliminary
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of subsistence and dietary practices using dental markers of diet. Caries rates are relatively high for a Polynesian population; 11.9% of permanent teeth had carious lesions; 61.4% of adults had at least one carious lesion. By-tooth analysis of periodontal disease indicated a relatively low prevalence of septal changes (61.7% healthy), but no adult individuals had all septal areas healthy; general periodontal reactions occurred in almost the entire population. Men showed significantly higher rates of periodontitis than women (p ≤ 0.001). The degree of macrowear follows general age trends, but there are no significant sex differences. Of the 743 adult teeth examined for chipping, significantly more anterior teeth were chipped than posterior teeth (p = 0.013), indicating a greater focus on incisal shearing and anterior tooth–tool use compared to chewing. Calculus is present in almost all adults. Antemortem tooth loss was relatively rare; only 8.2% of adult teeth were lost before death. Intra-population trends regarding age and sex are presented, as are inter-population comparisons between other Polynesian samples. The results are discussed against a background of ethnographic and archaeological literature, which suggest a typical Tongan diet was centered on well-cooked, carbohydrate-rich root vegetables. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2013.02.041 Ban Non Wat: An update on the lives of late prehistoric mainland Southeast Asians N. Tayles*, S. Halcrow, C. King, A. Clark, A. Foster, N. Harris (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand), [email protected] The late prehistoric Southeast Asian site of Ban Non Wat, with 630 burials, has allowed detailed, multifaceted bioarchaeological research into the lives of the people represented. Here we review findings to date, including demography, immigration, diet, health, patterns of physical activity and skeletal evidence of mortuary practices. The demographic data suggest population growth in the early and late phases at the site, although the patterns of mortality also suggest that the late phase population was contending with an epidemiological problem, possibly malaria. Evidence from strontium isotopes suggests immigration is not the explanation for the population growth. Dietary evidence from carbon isotopes in dental enamel supports an increasing contribution of rice to the diet until the late period, when it appears to reduce. Unfortunately, this period also had the poorest skeletal preservation, reducing the available evidence. In the early and middle periods, non-specific health indicators in adults, linear enamel hypoplasia and subperiosteal lesions, varied over time in a complex manner but physical activity shows a consistent pattern. Mortuary practices inferred from skeletal positions show increasing variation in burial contexts over time until the late period, when they reduced again. Overall the research is suggesting strongly that the lives of the people at Ban Non Wat improved until the latest period of prehistory, when iron appears at the site and climate change occurred. Research on pathology is yet to be completed. The variability in the evidence shows the human biological response was complex and a final interpretation awaits completion of the project. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2013.02.042 Description of jar burial practice at the Teouma Lapita cemetery (Efate, Vanuatu) and preliminary comparisons with Southeast Asia jar burial traditions F. Valentin* (CNRS (UMR 7041), France), J. Choi, J. Kerner (University of Paris 1, Paris, France), M. Spriggs, S. Bedford (Australian National University, Canberra, Australia), H. Buckley (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand), [email protected] The Teouma (Efate, Vanuatu) cemetery, dated to c. 3000 cal BP, has yielded more than 65 mortuary contexts, including several Lapita pots enclosing human remains. This paper proposes a description of the practice and of its association with the other funerary features as well as an interpretation of its place within the complicated and multi-stagial mortuary protocol recognised at the site. Preliminary