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

许多疾病和营养不平衡在骨骼上留下永久的印记，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方的史前人类骨骼人口的牙齿，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、易于收获和储存可能是早期索诺拉人从移动的觅食转向玉米种植的诱因。 这种饮食和流动性的变化极大地影响了人类的健康，并在接下来的几千年里严重恶化了人类的健康，最终导致了世纪末整个地区的社会崩溃。 这里假设，在早期农业时期（公元前1500年至公元前1500年），索诺兰沙漠中的人类群体对玉米的依赖逐渐增加。公元200年）。 将通过记录一组10个牙科观察结果（即-牙齿脱落、磨损、龋齿、牙齿脱落等）这与位于墨西哥索诺拉的早期农业时期考古遗址La Playa发现的200具史前人类骨骼样本的牙齿健康相关。 对人口牙齿健康的观察将通过放射性碳和氟化物测年与时间尺度联系起来。 该假设预测，La Playa墓葬将显示牙齿健康的可测量下降（即-随着玉米在考古记录中的饮食重要性的增加，疾病，损伤和磨损角度的频率增加）。这项研究是重要的，因为它使用了一个基于生物学的牙齿健康模型来测试一个有争议的考古命题，关于在北美沙漠西部引入和采用玉米农业。 此外，La Playa埋葬人口是这个时期最大（至少大10倍）和最早的埋葬样本，这使得这些骨骼在测试与农业依赖增加相关的拟议变化方面具有独特性。 此外，该项目代表了利用骨化学测年的多学科努力（氟化物和AMS）和牙齿健康的分析，以解决有关社会政治变化，饮食，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的国际讲习班。驯化和生物文化的变化影响到人类和沙漠。 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.