人类学学报 ›› 2005, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (01): 32-53.

• 人类学学报 • 上一篇    下一篇

新疆及内蒙古地区青铜—铁器时代居民牙齿磨耗及健康状况的分析

刘武,张全超,吴秀杰,朱泓   

  • 出版日期:2005-03-15 发布日期:2005-03-15

The tooth wear and health condition of the Bronze-Iron ages

LIU Wu , ZHANG Quanchao , WU Xiujie , ZHU Hong   

  • Online:2005-03-15 Published:2005-03-15

摘要: 对从新疆、内蒙古和内地7处考古遗址出土的古代居民牙齿磨耗、牙齿疾病、牙齿生前脱落及咀嚼肌发育情况进行的观察和对比发现生活在青铜—铁器时代的新疆和内蒙古居民牙齿平均磨耗与内地新石器时代居民大体接近。在磨耗方式上,新疆和内蒙古居民呈现出一些可能反映其生活或行为方式的特殊磨耗。龋齿病和牙齿生前脱落的出现率在边疆和内地居民具有明显的差别,表现为内地居民龋齿发病率高,而边疆居民牙齿生前脱落更普遍。另外,新疆和内蒙古居民上下颌骨出现有发育显著的骨质隆起。作者认为生活在青铜—铁器时代的新疆和内蒙古居民与同时期,甚至时代更早的内地居民相比,食物更为粗糙坚硬、含颗粒成分高;出现在新疆和内蒙古居民牙齿的局部或特殊磨耗、牙齿生前脱落、颌骨骨质隆起等现象说明边疆地区的居民生活环境比较恶劣,经常需要用牙齿啃咬坚硬的物品,或将牙齿作为工具使用。此外,龋齿病出现率的明显差别说明边疆居民谷物类富含碳水化合物的食物的摄入比例较内地居民为低。本文的发现进一步提示青铜—铁器时代的新疆和内蒙古地区,居民的社会经济生活中狩猎—采集仍占有较为重要的地位,农业经济的比重相对较低。

关键词: 牙齿;食物构成;考古学;体质人类学;新疆—内蒙古

Abstract: The tooth wears and some other features related to health status were observed and compared on the remains unearthed from the archaeological sites in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia at the Bronze-Iron ages, and from Henan and Shanxi of Neolithic period. Our results indicate that the average tooth wears are close between the residents of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, and the residents of Henan and Shanxi. Besides, some special patterns of tooth wears appear on the Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia inhabitants. Obvious differences of the caries and antemortem tooth loss were found for the people living in the Chinaps frontier areas and central areas along theYellow Rivers with higher frequencies of carries occurring in the Henan and Shanxi groups, and more antemortem tooth loss in the Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. We also found highly developed exostosis on mandible and maxilla in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia inhabitants.The authors believe that the diets eaten by the people living in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia are different from those consumed by the people about 2000 years later in Henan and Shanxi with more tough food eaten by the former groups.The high occurrence of more heavily wear in frontal teeth and some other special patterns of wear, antemorm tooth loss and exotosis on jaw bones in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia suggest that the people in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia lived in the relatively tough environments, frequently gnawing hard objects, or using teeth as some kind of tools.All these activities made the masticatory organs bear strong loadings.The differences of caries occurred in the frontier and central areas indicate that the food rich in carbohydrate compositions were consumed by the prople living in central areas. The authors propose that in many areas of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia about 3500 ) 2000 years BP, the people mainly relied on the hunter2gatherer economy type with lower proportions of agriculture in their life.

Key words: Tooth; Diets; Archaeology; Physical anthropology; Xinjiang-Inner Mongolia