Wear of Teeth in Sheep (WoTiS) - A tool for determining the rate of mandibular tooth wear in sheep
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11897741 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ursula R Mutze (0000-0003-0687-7332, Deutsche Bahn (Germany)), Ulrich Mutze (Deutsche Bahn (Germany), corresponding author), Gillian G Jones (0000-0002-4733-4679), Joris Peters (0000-0003-0894-2628, Bavarian State Collection of Zoology), Gillian Jones |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 136 |
| Pages | 105300-105300 |
| Publication date | 2021-03-18 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Archaeological Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-4403 • E-ISSN: 1095-9238 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.jas.2020.105300 |
| OpenAlex | W3136302368 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 15 |
Demographic profiling of a population of sheep buried in toto in the Ptolemaic-Early Roman animal necropolis at Syene/Aswan (Upper Egypt) revealed significantly higher age estimates based on tooth eruption and wear than those based on epiphyseal fusion. Since located in an arid landscape with occasionally heavy dust loads, one plausible assumption would be that at Syene, dental abrasion may have been exceptionally intense. Until now, however, no approach exists to determine the intrinsic rate of tooth wear in archaeological sheep specimens and its effects on demographic profiles. Using occlusal wear patterns observed in mandibular dental rows of large modern sheep populations of known age, we developed a novel method to determine the rate of tooth wear of sheep and estimate the corresponding age at death of the animals. To facilitate such time-consuming analysis, we then developed an IT-tool termed WoTiS (Wear of Teeth in Sheep) that has been coded in R. The paper outlines the principles underlying our approach and guides the reader through our method by way of examples. Discussion focuses on the application of our approach to sheep populations from Celtic Manching (southern Germany) and Late Dynastic-Mamluk Syene (Upper Egypt). Our results underscore the necessity of evaluating the rate of tooth wear in sheep in order to reach valid statements regarding the species’ mode of exploitation in ancient cultures
Abrasion (mechanical · Archaeology · Biology · Geography · Mamluk · Population · Tooth wear · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Dentistry · Engineering · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Medicine · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Orthodontics
The Sheep Project (3)
The Emergence and Evolution of Charleston, South Carolina’s (U.S.A.) Colonial Economy
Improving identification of caprine mandibles
Cattle (Bos taurus) as colonists in South Carolina’s Lowcountry (USA), CE 1670–1900
A method for assessing relative wear rate in cattle molars, with an application to the Iron Age and Roman periods
The earliest evidence for deformation of livestock horns
A non-linear prediction model for ageing foetal and neonatal sheep reveals basic issues in early neolithic husbandry
Dentition as indicative of the age of the animals of the farm
A review of published sources for age at death in cattle
The Sheep Project (2)
Age at death in cattle
Absolute age and tooth eruption and wear sequences in sheep and goat
Morphological distinctions between the mandibular teeth of young sheep, Ovis, and goats, Capra
Reference codes for wear states in the mandibular cheek teeth of sheep and goats
Sheep in the Iron Age
Kill-off Patterns in Sheep and Goats
Sorting the Sheep from the Goats
An assessment of the archaeological applicability of faunal ageing methods based on dental wear
| Citations per year | 1.4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |