Non-Masticatory Dental Wear Patterns In Individuals Exhumed From The Middle Bronze Age Rock-Cut Tombs Of Torre Velha 3 (Serpa, Portugal)

Dental examination of 21 individuals (11 females, nine males and one undetermined sex) exhumed from the rock-cut tombs of Torre Velha 3 (Serpa, Portugal), dating from the 2(nd) millennium BC, revealed dental wear features and oral lesions that can be linked to non-masticatory activities and/or dietary habits. A total of 471 teeth were macroscopically analyzed. One young-adult female and a middle-age adult of unknown sex display lingual surface attrition of the maxillary anterior teeth (LSAMAT). A middle-age adult female has LSAMAT, anterior occlusal surface groove (AOSG) and chipping. Two other middle-age adult females have oblique wear planes (OWP), one of them also with chipping. Overall variation and low frequencies of the observed alterations suggest that multiple activities and/or dietary habits could have caused these wear patterns. The hypothesis that atypical wear patterns are sex biased was tested using Fischer's exact test, and results were not statistically significant (p-value = 0.09). Thus, it is possible to infer that these individuals had possible dietary or cultural idiosyncratic behaviors, besides repetitive non-masticatory task related-activities.