Repositori URV

Identifier: TDX:392

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX392

Authors:
Lozano Ruiz, Marina

Abstract:
EN INGLÉS TESIS MARINA LOZANO RUIZ'Study of microscopic dental wear of human anterior teeth of the Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos).'Dentition is, together with hands, one of parts of human body in direct contact with exterior items. Hands and teeth used simultaneously allow us make a great amount of tasks for processing and modifying many materials. The different ancient Homo species have used their teeth for processing food previous to their ingestion. The front part of dental arcade is very versatile since not only it can be used for preparing foodstuff, but also for processing vegetable fibers and materials of animal origin like sinews and furs. The activities that imply anterior teeth contact with different materials can produce signals and marks on dental surfaces. These alterations will get more or less marked according to the intensity of these activities. This fact has not slipped by for many researchers that they have examined, macro and microscopically, the features of wear present in dental enamel. Nowadays, we have a well-established typology of microwear features that allow us identify formation processes. In Sima de los Huesos (SH) site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos), human remains belonging to twenty-eight individuals have been found. We consider the SH hominin sample as representative of Homo heidelbergensis species dated in 400.000 years BP. The current dental sample includes a total of 479 teeth, 163 of they are incisors and canines. We document the presence of many obliquely oriented cultural striations on buccal surface of anterior teeth. This type of scratching was the result of use of anterior dentition as a third hand. SH individuals perform the 'stuff and cut' technique. In this work we have confirmed t