A Byzantine Shipwreck from Cape Stoba,Mljet, Croatia: an interim report

The Cape Stoba shipwreck is located on the seabed off the island of Mljet in Croatia at a depth of 21–28 m. Following initial investigation in 1975, four seasons of excavation have been carried between 2010 and 2014 by the Department for Underwater Archaeology of the Croatian Conservation Institute, joined by the Department of Studi Umanistici of the Università Ca' Foscari of Venice from 2012. The wreck‐site is evidenced by a cargo of nine amphora types dated to the 10th‐11th century AD, produced in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea area, and glassware of Levantine production. The only direct evidence of the ship itself to date, is one iron anchor.     

Condemned to metallum? The origin and role of 4th–6th century A.D. Phaeno mining campresidents using multiple chemical techniques

The Byzantine period (4th–7th centuries A.D.) site of Khirbet Faynan (Phaeno) was a state-run mining camp described in ancient sources as a destination for Christian martyrs and others prosecuted by the administration who were condemned to the mines (damnatio ad metallum). However, other evidence suggests that Phaeno had a much broader role and population in antiquity than that described by ancient writers. Here, strontium and oxygen isotope data on the level of migration into Phaeno were compared with elemental data on lead and copper skeletal levels to illuminate the varied exposure of local vs. non-local individuals to contaminated environments (presumably from working in mining and smelting operations). Dental enamel ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹⁸O data from 31 individuals excavated from the Southern Cemetery identified one individual born in a region with different strontium isotope values in the bedrock yet similar oxygen isotope signatures as Faynan. Most of the primarily locally-derived Faynan residents displayed skeletal copper and lead levels exceeding those seen in comparative samples, confirming that growing up and residing in the polluted environment of Faynan led to notable bioaccumulation of heavy metals and its resulting health effects. In addition, ten individuals had extremely elevated lead and copper levels in their skeleton resulting from more intensive exposure to contaminated environments, possibly through smelting and mining activities. These data confirm the relatively localized nature of this imperial operation and that this predominantly locally-derived population had different activities that put them ask varied risk for contamination by heavy metals.     

Turner Teeth and childhood caries in a protohistoric California Indian population

Three instances of unusual enamel defects are reported from a late prehistoric and protohistoric non-agricultural California Indian population. The defects, consisting of irregular absence of enamel over much of the crown of single premolars, with no corresponding hypoplastic defects in the remainder of the dentition, are typical of Turner teeth. Such defects are a consequence of pulp exposure from severe caries infections in the primary dentition. Their presence is suggestive of unusually high levels of childhood caries experience for a non-agricultural population, a suggestion borne out by examination of the deciduous dentitions.     

Dental disease evidence for agricultural intensification in the Nubian C-Group

The results of this study reveal significantly greater frequencies of caries, periapical abscesses and ante-mortem tooth loss in the Lower Nubian C-Group (ca. 2000–1500 BC) compared with the preceding Classic/Terminal A-Group (ca. 3100–2500 BC). More severe tooth wear in the C-Group, which traditionally would be interpreted as consistent with a hunting-gathering subsistence base, can instead be attributed to grit in the diet resulting from the processing of agricultural produce with sandstone and quartzite mortars and grinding stones, and perhaps also to the intentional addition of grit to grain in order to facilitate grinding. The results of this study, when evaluated in the context of complementary archaeological and osteological evidence, indicate that both groups practised a mixed economy but that the C-Group relied more heavily on cereal cultivation.     

Sex assessment of medieval Norwegian skeletons based on permanent tooth crown size

The excavation of the Library site in Trondheim uncovered the medieval cemetry of St. Olav's church containing 388 skeletons, of which 248 had skulls with teeth. Sex assessment was based on osteological criteria, and for 145 skeletons sex classification was performed with a high degree of certainty. The remaining 103 were classified as uncertain male, uncertain female and sex undetermined. Mesio-distal and facio-lingual crown widths of permanent teeth in the group of reliably assessed males and females were used in sex-discriminant analyses. A combination of two or more teeth was less effective in discrimination than using one tooth alone. This was due to missing data in the combined variable sets and thereby loss of cases. Missing variables were due to post-mortem tooth loss, attrition or large deposits of calculus. The teeth were ranked according to their power in sex discrimination. The left maxillary first molar (26) represented by its facio-lingual dimension was the best sex discriminator (classified 85 per cent of the cases correctly), followed by the right maxillary first molar (16) also represented by its facio-lingual dimension (classified 77 per cent correctly). With only one variable in the discriminant function, a critical value could be calculated and tabulated for each tooth. This was used in sex assessment of the osteologically undetermined and uncertain groups. Only variables that could sex classify correctly at least 70 per cent of the cases with the Jack-knife procedure were used. Sex assessment could be made for 16 of 24 (66.7 per cent) of the osteologically sex-undetermined adult individuals and for 21 of 44 (47.7 per cent) of the children. Of 35 osteologically uncertainly sex-assessed skulls, only nine (six men and three women) corresponded with dental classification.     

Molar crown height: not always a reliable method for the evaluation of age-at-death

In this study, we tested the validity of molar crown height, which changes according to the degree of tooth wear, for the evaluation of age-at-death. The sample consisted of 372 first and second molars (lower and upper) from 157 individuals of known sex and age-at-death. For each molar, we measured the height of the two cusps most subjected to wear (protocone and hypocone for the upper M1 and M2; protoconid and hypoconid for the lower M1 and M2). The correlation between crown height and age-at-death was assessed by linear regression analysis. The resulting models were not very robust since a significant correlation was only found for a small part of the sample, at best (maxillary M1) around 35%. The result slightly improved when bucco-lingual diameter (BL diameter), ante-mortem tooth loss and dental caries were considered, mainly for the maxillary M2 for which the model using age-at-death and BL diameter as independent variables explained 47% of the sample (p < 0.001).