Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Dental Health and the Agricultural Transition in Sonora, Mexico

许多疾病和营养失衡在骨骼上留下了永久的印记，为研究古代健康问题提供了独特的记录。这项研究检查了来自墨西哥索诺拉北部的史前人类骨骼种群的牙齿，以探索大约4000年前北美沙漠西部向玉米农业过渡时人类健康的变化。高产量，易于收获和储存可能是早期索诺拉人从移动觅食转向玉米种植的动机。在接下来的几千年里，饮食和流动性的这种变化极大地影响并严重恶化了人类的健康，最终导致了14世纪末整个地区的社会崩溃。这里的假设是，在早期农业时期（公元前1500年-公元200年），索诺兰沙漠的人类群体对玉米的依赖逐渐增加。这一假设将通过记录一组与牙齿健康相关的牙齿观察结果（如脓肿、磨损、龋齿、牙齿脱落等）来验证，这些观察结果来自于墨西哥索诺拉早期农业时期考古遗址拉普拉亚（La Playa）的200具史前人类骨骼样本。对人口牙齿健康的观察将通过放射性碳和氟化物定年法与时间尺度联系起来。该假说预测，随着考古记录的发展，玉米在饮食中的重要性增加，拉普拉亚墓葬将显示出牙齿健康的明显下降（即疾病、损伤和磨损的频率增加）。这项研究意义重大，因为它使用了基于牙齿健康的生物学模型来测试一个有争议的考古命题，该命题涉及在北美西部沙漠引入和采用玉米农业。此外，拉普拉亚的埋葬人口是这个时期最大的（至少十倍于此）和最早的埋葬样本，这使得这些骨骼独特，可以用来测试与对农业的依赖增加有关的变化。此外，该项目代表了一项多学科的努力，利用骨化学定年（氟化物和AMS）和牙齿健康分析来解决关于社会政治变化、饮食和生存实践之间相互作用的考古问题。这项研究将通过与墨西哥学者建立国际合作来加强网络和伙伴关系，这将导致组织关于玉米驯化和影响人类和沙漠的生物文化变化的国际讲习班。这也将促进学生的专业发展。

Many diseases and nutritional imbalances leave permanent imprints in the skeleton providing a unique record to study ancient health problems. This research examines the teeth of a prehistoric human skeletal population from northern Sonora, Mexico to explore the changes in human health that accompany the transition to corn agriculture in the North American Desert West approximately 4000 years ago. High yields, ease of harvest and storage was likely an incentive for early Sonorans to shift from mobile foraging to corn farming. This change in diet and mobility greatly impacted and seriously worsened human health over the course of the next several thousand years and eventually led to region-wide social collapse by the end of the 14th Century. It is hypothesized here that corn dependence gradually increased among human groups in the Sonoran Desert over the course of the Early Agricultural period (1500 B.C.-A.D. 200). This hypothesis will be tested by recording a suite of ten dental observations (i.e.-abscesses, attrition, caries, tooth loss, etc.) that correlate with dental health on a sample of 200 prehistoric human skeletons recovered from La Playa, an Early Agricultural period archaeological site located in Sonora, Mexico. Observations made on the population's dental health will be tied to a time scale by radiocarbon and fluoride dating. The hypothesis predicts that the La Playa burials will demonstrate a measurable decline in dental health (i.e.-increased frequencies of disease, damage, and wear angles) as corn increases in dietary importance over the course of the archaeological record.This research is significant because it uses a biologically based model of dental health to test a contested archaeological proposition concerning the introduction and adoption of corn agriculture in the North American Desert West. In addition, the La Playa burial population is the largest (at least ten times larger) and earliest burial sample dating to this time period, which makes these skeletons unique to test the proposed changes associated with increased dependence on agriculture. Furthermore, this project represents a multidisciplinary effort utilizing bone chemistry dating (Fluoride and AMS) and an analysis of dental health to address an archaeologically-based question about the interaction between socio-political changes, diet, and subsistence practices.This research will enhance networks and partnerships by creating an international cooperation with Mexican scholars which will lead to the organization of international workshops on corn domestication and bio-cultural changes affecting both humans and deserts. It will also enhance the professional development of the student.