2013 年 121 巻 3 号 p. 187-201
Variations in oral paleopathology have been widely documented among groups stemming from different regions or periods to clarify the relationship between human health and type of subsistence. The skeletal materials unearthed around the Great Wall in northern China are suitable for this aim since archeological studies minutely report the changes in subsistence in the area. We examined oral health in the skeletal assemblages of nine millet agricultural groups between the Middle Neolithic period (c. 3800–2800 BC) and the Sixteen Kingdoms period (304–439 AD) around the Great Wall of China, and found a consistent increase in the prevalence of caries over time. Although this finding is based on analysis without sufficient demographic data, the statistically similar age distribution among the groups suggests a minimum effect of sampling error. Further analysis using three groups that have a relatively large sample size for each sex and age category also showed an increase in caries, ante-mortem tooth loss, periapical abscess, and calculus prevalence, and a decrease in advanced attrition, suggesting an increased consumption of agricultural foods. This trend could be a result of a more tender/refined diet related to the development of food-processing techniques, which have been demonstrated by archaeological/historical evidence and stable isotope analyses. On the other hand, sex differences in oral health varied between the Jiangjialiang Middle Neolithic and the Tuchengzi Warring States samples. In the Middle Neolithic assemblage, the frequency of advanced dental attrition in males was 3-fold that of females, suggesting the sexual division of labor in this period. In contrast, in the Warring States assemblage, the prevalence of caries in young males was a quarter of that in young females, reflecting the difference of living environments between the sexes, where young males were probably under military conscription at that time.
