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This article presents outcomes from a Workshop entitled "Bioarchaeology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward," which was held at Arizona State University (ASU) on March 6-8, 2020. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (ASU), and the Center for Bioarchaeological Research (CBR, ASU), the Workshop's overall goal was to explore reasons why research proposals submitted by bioarchaeologists, both graduate students and established scholars, fared disproportionately poorly within recent NSF Anthropology Program competitions and to offer advice for increasing success. Therefore, this Workshop comprised 43 international scholars and four advanced graduate students with a history of successful grant acquisition, primarily from the United States. Ultimately, we focused on two related aims: (1) best practices for improving research designs and training and (2) evaluating topics of contemporary significance that reverberate through history and beyond as promising trajectories for bioarchaeological research. Among the former were contextual grounding, research question/hypothesis generation, statistical procedures appropriate for small samples and mixed qualitative/quantitative data, the salience of Bayesian methods, and training program content. Topical foci included ethics, social inequality, identity (including intersectionality), climate change, migration, violence, epidemic disease, adaptability/plasticity, the osteological paradox, and the developmental origins of health and disease. Given the profound changes required globally to address decolonization in the 21st century, this concern also entered many formal and informal discussions.

The earliest anatomically modern humans in Europe are thought to have appeared around 43,000-42,000 calendar years before present (43-42 kyr cal BP), by association with Aurignacian sites and lithic assemblages assumed to have been made by modern humans rather than by Neanderthals. However, the actual physical evidence for modern humans is extremely rare, and direct dates reach no farther back than about 41-39 kyr cal BP, leaving a gap. Here we show, using stratigraphic, chronological and archaeological data, that a fragment of human maxilla from the Kent's Cavern site, UK, dates to the earlier period. The maxilla (KC4), which was excavated in 1927, was initially diagnosed as Upper Palaeolithic modern human (1). In 1989, it was directly radiocarbon dated by accelerator mass spectrometry to 36.4-34.7 kyr cal BP (2). Using a Bayesian analysis of new ultrafiltered bone collagen dates in an ordered stratigraphic sequence at the site, we show that this date is a considerable underestimate. Instead, KC4 dates to 44.2-41.5 kyr cal BP. This makes it older than any other equivalently dated modern human specimen and directly contemporary with the latest European Neanderthals, thus making its taxonomic attribution crucial. We also show that in 13 dental traits KC4 possesses modern human rather than Neanderthal characteristics; three other traits show Neanderthal affinities and a further seven are ambiguous. KC4 therefore represents the oldest known anatomically modern human fossil in northwestern Europe, fills a key gap between the earliest dated Aurignacian remains and the earliest human skeletal remains, and demonstrates the wide and rapid dispersal of early modern humans across Europe more than 40 kyr ago., The dispersal of the first anatomically modern humans (AMH) into Europe has long been associated with the transition from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic and linked with the subsequent [...]

Dental caries was investigated in 600 adult dentitions belonging to the identified osteological collections of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Coimbra, Portugal (late 19th/early 20th centuries). The main advantage of this sample compared to an archaeological source is the presence of known demographic parameters such as age, sex, and occupation. The aim of this study is to investigate the issues involved in comparing caries data derived from archaeological death assemblages with statistics compiled from clinical studies of the living. When only the upper dentition was considered, higher rates were observed in females than in males. No differences were found between sexes for lower teeth. In both sexes, both the percentage of carious teeth and the severity of lesions were found to increase with age, demonstrating that caries activity continued throughout life. The slight decrease observed for the age group 70-79 years is probably due to the increased antemortem tooth loss in the elderly. Caries was most common at contact areas (32.9%) and rarest at smooth crown surfaces (6.5%). Root surface caries was graphed in relation to the exposure of roots, and it was confirmed that the degree of root exposure was not strongly related to the frequency of carious lesions on the exposed root surface, although both increased with age. Molars were attacked more frequently by caries as a whole than premolars, canines or incisors. The results are similar to studies of recent living populations with a limited access to professional dental care. KEY WORDS paleopathology; epidemiology; Coimbra; diet; antemortem tooth loss

Most archaeological and fossil teeth are heavily worn, and this greatly limits the usefulness of tooth crown diameter measurements, as they are usually defined at the widest points of the crown. There are alternatives, particularly measurements at the cervix of the tooth, where the crown joints the root, and measurements along a diagonal axis in molars, that are much less affected by wear. These would allow a wider range of specimens to be included, e.g., in the study of dental reduction in Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Homo sapiens. In addition, they would allow the little-worn teeth of children to be compared directly with well-worn teeth in adults. These alternatives, however, have been little used, and as yet there have not been any studies of the repeatability with which they can be measured, or of the extent to which they are related to the more usual crown diameters. The present study is based on a group of unworn teeth, where direct comparisons could be made between the alternative measurements, which are not much affected by wear, with the usual crown diameters, which are very much affected. In an interobserver-error study of this material, cervical and diagonal measurements could be recorded as reliably as the usual crown diameters. The buccolingual cervical measurement was strongly correlated with the normal bucclingual crown diameter in all teeth, whereas the mesiodistal cervical measurement was highly correlated with the normal mesiodistal crown diameter in incisors and canines, but less so in premolars and molars. The molar diagonal measurements showed high correlations with all other measurements. Crown areas (robustness index) calculated from the usual diameters were strongly correlated with crown areas calculated from cervical measurements, and crown areas calculated from molar diagonals were strongly correlated with both other areas. Despite the long usage of the more usual maximum crown diameters, the alternative dental measurements could be measured just as reliably, could record similar information about tooth crown size, and would be better measures for the worn dentitions seen in archaeological and fossil material. KEY WORDS dental measurements; crown diameters; cervical diameters

Diagnosis of the congenital form of syphilis is an important part of the palaeopathology of this disease. In theory, there are clear clinical signs to be found in the long bones and teeth, but it has rarely been possible to recognise the latter with a confidence in archaeological material, partly because the original descriptions of the dental deformities are sometimes contradictory and partly because it is nowadays difficult to find reference specimens in museums. This article describes two such specimens which have recently been rediscovered, and discusses the form of the dental defects which they show (Hutchinson's incisors, Moon's molars, and mulberry molars) in relation to the developmental sequence of the teeth. KEY WORDS enamel hypoplasia; Hutchinson's incisors; Moon's molars; mulberry molars; dental development

The defects of enamel hypoplasia can be related to the layered structure of enamel which represents the sequence of development in tooth crowns. From such studies, it is possible to see that furrow-type enamel defects (the most common form of hypoplasia seen with the naked eye) are just the most prominent expression of a continuum which extends ever smaller, down to a microscopic disturbance to a single layer in the crown formation sequence. Furthermore, the progressive decrease in spacing between development layers which occurs down the crown sides, from occlusal to cervical, affects both the prominence and apparent width of the defects. This makes it difficult to use measurements as a means of estimating the duration of the disturbance causing a particular defect. The difficulty is even greater for the less common pitted or exposed-plane-type defects, for which the apparent width bears very little relationship with the duration of the growth disturbance. The defects of enamel hypoplasia can therefore be understood clearly only when examined under the microscope in relation to the structures which mark the development sequence of the tooth crown. KEY WORDS: hypoplasia; dental development; dental enamel defects; perikymata

Objectives: This study aimed to test the taxonomic utility of the catarrhine supraorbital region using 3D geometric morphometrics, with the aim of establishing its potential use in elucidating the position of more debated hominin groups. Materials and Methods: 230 3D coordinates were used to record the supraorbital morphology of two datasets: one containing 460 non‐hominin catarrhine primates from species and subspecies of Gorilla, Pan, Papio, and Macaca; and the other containing 55 Pleistocene hominins from Homo, Australopithecus, and Paranthropus. Principal component analyses in tangent, form, and allometry‐free shape space were used to assess differentiation of taxa, with biological distinctiveness of taxa being established using step‐wise discriminant analysis with subsampling. Results: Results indicated that the recorded supraorbital morphology could be used to separate non‐hominin catarrhine primate genera, species, and subspecies, although accuracy was found to decrease with decreasing Linnaean rank. In addition, analyses in tangent space were found to produce the highest accuracy when classifying primates of known taxonomy. Biological distinctiveness of the middle and later Homo species was comparable to or higher than that of the non‐hominin primates, and relatively lower for the earlier groups of Homo. Discussion: This study indicates that the supraorbital region preserves taxonomic information that can be used to delineate between closely related groups, both within hominins and wider catarrhine primates. Therefore, this region may be used to provide insight when assessing the taxonomic affiliation of disputed hominin specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Adult age at death estimation continues to challenge physical anthropologists. One estimation method involves counting tooth cementum annulations (TCA). Non‐destructively accessing TCA is a critical step to approaching fossil teeth of unknown age and to verifying life history profiles of human ancestors. This pilot study aims to (a) non‐destructively image TCA in teeth from a known age archeological human population by propagation phase contrast X‐ray synchrotron μCT (PPC‐SR‐μCT) (b) test the correlation between real and estimated ages, and the accuracy, precision and bias of age estimates. Materials and Methods: We examine 20 permanent human canines (aged 20–81 years), from a 18th to 19th century known age collection from St. Luke's Church (London, England). We scanned transverse segments of acellular cementum in the apical portion of the middle root third using PPC‐SR‐μCT. We generated virtual transverse sections on which two observers perform two sessions of blind TCA counts. We calculate the estimated ages at death by adding 10 years to the TCA counts. Results: A moderately strong positive linear relationship exists between real and estimated ages (r = 0.76, p <.001), with an average inaccuracy of 16.1 years and an average bias towards underestimation of 15.7 years. This difference is lower in individuals <50 years (6.8 and 6.5 years, respectively, n = 10) compared with those >50 years (24.9 years, n = 10). Discussion: We reliably imaged and identified TCA in individuals <50 years from a known‐age archeological sample. Scanning refinement will yield a promising alternative to current destructive methods of TCA analyses and to aid access to life history events in adult fossil hominins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development, Function and Evolution of Teeth, edited by Mark F. Teaford, Moya Meredith Smith, and Mark W.J. Ferguson. Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. 2000. 314 pp. [...]