| This dissertation explores the changes in dental disease and health from early hunter-gatherers from the Texas Central Gulf Coastal Plain (TCGCP). Data for this work was gathered from 517 individuals representing 21 cemetery sites, which range in date from the Paleoamerican (c.9000BP) to the Protohistoric (c.450BP) time periods. During all phases of prehistoric occupation, inhabitants maintained a hunting and gathering subsistence strategy. Models of hunter-gatherer dental health predict that past foragers experience a characteristic pattern of disease. This pattern is marked by relatively low frequencies of tooth decay and infection, while adequate nutrition would have led to few signs of metabolic stress. However, foragers would have experienced high levels of dental wear. These models suggest that forager dental health was relatively stable across time. To test this assumption, quantitative and qualitative observations of dental lesions, demographic anomalies, and tooth size data were used to assess the patterns of dental health over time. Interpretations were supplemented by the available ecological and archeological record.; To refine paleodemographic analysis, a new method of estimating age at death from dental wear is proposed. This method employs ethnographic analogy, and uses observed hunter-gatherer demographic data as a model. The method relies on seriation of second mandibular molars and assumes that the oldest individual was over 70 years of age at death. Results indicate that significant numbers of early TCGCP hunter-gatherers survived to advanced ages, especially in the Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric periods.; Results regarding dental disease reveal that frequencies of dental lesions were variable from one time period to another. Nearly all classes of dental disease reached their lowest frequency during the Late Archaic period, with the highest frequencies occurring in the following Late Prehistoric. Dental disease frequencies plateaued during the Protohistoric, and do not seem to have been significantly impacted by early contact with Europeans. Dental disease frequencies were not influenced by fluctuations in tooth size, since there were no significant changes in the size of teeth between successive time periods. Contrary to previous assumptions, hunter-gatherer dental health is not static. Significant changes were observed across time and were likely influenced by cultural and technological innovations in food preparation and collection methods. |
