In 2000, I completed my master's research on dental histological age estimation for a prehistoric archaeological sample from Damdama, a Mesolithic site in India (8000-5000 BC). Damdama is a Mesolithic cemetery on the Gangetic Plain (26o 10’ N latitude and 82o 10’ E longitude ), which was excavated in 1982-1987 by J.N. Pal and a team of archaeologists from Allahabad University. The site (8750 m2 with a deposit of cultural material 1.5 m deep) yielded 48 burials, microliths, bone objects, querns, mullers, hammer stones, burned clay lumps, charred grains and faunal remains. The sample for my study consisted of 29 teeth belonging to 18 adult individuals. The teeth were sectioned in the MD plane and age was estimated using methods based on dental attrition, root dentine translucency, and cementum annulations (Johanson 1971; Maples 1978; Charles et al 1986, Lorentsen and Solheim 1989; Kashyap and Rao 1990; Drusini 1990). The histological methods were then compared to one another and with the previous age estimates based on a suite of macroscopic methods including dental eruption timing, dental attrition, changes in pelvic morphology, cranial sutures, epiphyseal suture closure, and degenerative changes to postcranial morphology (Lukacs et al. in press). To determine whether histological methods that were developed from forensic samples and dental extractions, are applicable to prehistoric archaeological material, the following research questions were posed:
  1. Are the methods relatively accurate in relationship to one another and to the multifactorial macroscopic age estimates made previously?
  2. Are the methods internally consistent in tests of observer error? 
  3. Are there significant differences between multiple teeth available from the same individuals?
  4. Are there detectable systematic biases within the methods, such as over-aging young individuals and under-aging older individuals? 
  5. As all of these methods use the same few anatomical structures, is a comparison of the results informative about individual methodological problems?
  6. Given diagenesis, are the original protocols directly applicable to this sample or are there necessary modifications?
  7. Can any of these methods improve the accuracy of the paleodemographic profile for Damdama? 
  8. Can the demographic profile be expanded through the inclusion of individuals for whom age could not previously be estimated specifically?


The results of this analysis indicate that a count of the cementum annulations is feasable for archaeological populations. Cementum annulations yield age estimates with a 98% correlation with known age at death in modern samples (Charles et al 1998). The annulations accumulate approximately annually and have a slope only slightly less than 1 in maximum likelihood analysis for modern populations (Ibid.). Given an intact periodontium and no evidence of pathological destruction of the root surface, this method appears to be the best hope for a chronometric measure of age at death in archaeological populations.
   

Table of Contents
Micrograph of cementum annulations in a prehistoric tooth
Bibliography
 

Robbins, G. (2003). Mesolithic Damdama, dental histology and age estimation. Allahabad: Dept. of Ancient History, Culture & Archaeology, University of Allahabad.

Available on WorldCat by OCLC: 60453955