title: Diet and age-at-death determinations from molar attrition. A review related to the low countries.
abstract: To elucidate the impact of diet on age-at-death determinations based on molar attrition a comparison was made between the established rate of attrition in three populations; a pre-mediaeval (British), a late mediaeval (Dutch) and a 17-18th century (Dutch) (western European). It appeared that the rate decreased dramatically during the overall time span and that this change was probably diet related and owing to the coarseness of foodstuffs. This result strongly indicated that molar age-attrition tables should only be used for age-at-death determinations if their application is restricted to a particular cultural period and diet.
authors.affiliation: Barge's Anthropologica, Leiden University Medical Center.
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Maat
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth; D000368:Aged; D004032:Diet / Q000266:history*; D005553:Forensic Dentistry / Q000379:methods*; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008875:Middle Aged; D008963:Molar / Q000473:pathology; D009426:Netherlands; D010161:Paleodontology; D010164:Paleopathology; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019217:Tooth Attrition / Q000266:history* / Q000473:pathology; D006113:United Kingdom