Estimating the age and season-at-death of ungulates from the analysis of archaeological dental cementum: recent improvements and perspectives from the CemeNTAA project

RANDALL WHITE; C. SÁNCHEZ-HERNÁNDEZ; A. PASQUALINI ; EMMANUEL DISCAMPSS; STEPHAN NAJI; WILLIAM RENDU; STUART R. STOCK; ERIC PUBERT; ELODIE-LAURE JIMINEZ; HALA ALARASHI; M. VUILLIEN; S. RIGAUD; VANESSA PARMIGIANI; EMILIE BLAISE; LIONEL GOURICHON

Ankara

Congreso; 13th ICAZ International Conference; 2018

Middle East Technical University

The CemeNTAA project, funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), is dedicated to the improvement of the dental cementum analytical techniques applied to archaeological teeth. In this communication, we will present the main results obtained from the microscopic analysis of several collections of modern teeth from various ungulate species of known date-at-death (reindeer, red deer, fallow deer, mouflon, chamois, sheep, goat, bison, cattle, etc.) and from the examination of a large sample of archaeological specimens dated from the Middle Palaeolithic to the late Holocene periods. Among other results, we developed new standardized procedures of observation and interpretation of the incremental structures; established reliable criteria for identifying optical and observer biases as assessed from the use of blind tests on modern teeth; created physical cementum library associated with an open access database of microscopic images and comments for data sharing; presented novel data on cementum microstructure and composition from new analytical tools such as synchrotron X-ray fluorescence and diffraction mapping; categorized and documented potential taphonomic cementum alterations and modifications which may impede or skewed the observations; proposed new protocols for making histological thin-sections according to a less destructive approach; provided new data about seasonality and animal resource procurement in various prehistoric contexts in southern France, Belgium, northern Spain, South Africa and southern Argentina.