Discover the meal of the ancient people

To study how prehistoric humans eat and drink, scientists analyzed the remaining teeth as fossils.

Scientists have compared the teeth of 58 people living in different eras from the 11th to the 19th centuries in Spain and the ancient Inuit fossil teeth living in Alaska (USA). .

Analyzing fossil teeth can help them
We know about the diet of prehistoric people.

To do this, they crushed the specimens to very small sizes (averaging 5 to 10 milligrams) and determining the isotope composition of carbon and nitrogen by mass spectroscopy.

Based on 13С's stable isotopes and 15N scientists have identified the feeding characteristics of prehistoric people. Nitrogen element - almost no exception - is present in all meat foods and the consumption of this food group varies with the ratio of nitrogen and its isotope in tissues.

The drawn conclusions are:

- First , the percentage of meat identified in Spanish human teeth samples coincided with independent assessments when analyzing collagen in bone.

- Secondly , the analysis of the Inuit fossil teeth samples indicates that the ratio of meat food in their diet is higher than that of the Spanish diet. This is also consistent with the current diet of Inuit Aboriginal people living in Alaska.

Currently, there are also other methods that allow similar information to be obtained from other samples such as collagen of bones, hair, and nails. However, if these samples are used for analysis, they must destroy the fossil bone fragments. In addition, hair and nails are rare, rarely found in excavated relics because they cannot be preserved for a long time.

In contrast, fossil teeth are easy to find and easy to store. The advantage of the new method is that it is possible to determine what caveman eat without having to damage precious specimens.

This work is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science , in summary form and full text on the Nevada State University website.