Ritual tooth ablation in and dentometric assessment of a newly discovered collective burial at the Hobi shell-mound site, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

Ritual tooth ablation was a characteristic form of body expression for the prehistoric Jomon people. During the 2010–2013 excavation at the Hobi shell-mound site, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, a new case of secondary collective burial, banjo-shuseki-bo, was discovered, in which additional cases of ritual tooth ablation were present in human skeletal remains. Here we describe the morphology and tooth extraction status of individual mandibles, and assess the interindividual relationships on the basis of tooth crown diameter. Although a certain degree of kin relation was predicted among individuals from the new collective burial, which seems comparable to those found in modern Japanese twin pairs, almost the same degree of close kin relationship was detected in interindividual variation and in intersite variation with the neighboring Jomon sites.