Rare genetic dental anomaly found in Bronze Age skull
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From battle wounds to medical complaints, skeletons can reveal many secrets about someone's daily life.
Now, a Bronze Age skull discovered in Siberia that has a host of interesting features has been found to have a rare dental anomaly.
Using cutting-edge methods, scientists revealed that the owner of the skeleton had a rare case of agenesis, meaning his two central bottom teeth never formed - and it is the first example of this anomaly found in ancient people.
Unusual: A Bronze Age skull (pictured) discovered in Siberia with interesting features has been found to have a rare dental anomaly as well as the tip of an arrowhead embedded in his face
The genetic trait is so rare it only affects 0.5 per cent of people, according to experts.
The people of the Baikal region, to which the skeleton belongs, buried their relatives in formal graves, unlike most other societies during the Bronze Age.
Their practices give archaeologists a better look into the past, some 4,000 years ago, Canadian Light Source reported.
The skeleton was discovered in a cemetery northwest of Lake Baikal along with four arrowheads, one of which was found in an eye socket.
Experts used radiocarbon dating to establish that the remains belong to a 35- to 40-year-old male living in the early Bronze Age, between 4,360 and 3,935 years ago.
Using cutting-edge methods, scientists found that the owner of the skeleton had a rare case of agenesis so that his two central bottom teeth never formed (pictured)
Located: The skeleton was discovered in a cemetery northwest of Lake Baikal in Siberia (mapped) along with a disk and four arrowheads, one of which was found in an eye socket
AND A 2,300-YEAR-OLD FALSE TOOTH WAS FOUND IN AN IRON AGE SKELETON
An iron tooth implant fitted 2,300 years ago could be earliest false tooth ever found in Western Europe, it was reported last month
The dental implant was discovered in the timber burial chamber of an Iron Age woman who died in her twenties in Le Chene, northern France.
Archaeologists believe the false tooth was added to improve the appearance of the corpse as the procedure would have been too painful to endure while alive.
The implant came in the form of an iron pin found in place of an upper incisor tooth, from which a false tooth would have been attached.
Scientists believe the iron spike was pounded into the pulp canal of nerves and blood vessels to make sure it stayed in place.
The procedure would have been excruciating had the lady been alive when it was performed.
Iron corrodes inside the body, and one theory is that the lack of sterile conditions may have led to an infection that ended the young lady's life.
Another possible scenario is that the dental implant was fitted after her death for aesthetic reasons.
Bioarchaeologist Angela Lieverse from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, has been familiar with the unusual skull for a decade when she noted its missing teeth, as well as a stone arrowhead embedded in the area below the place the teeth should be.
'We knew there was a projectile, we could see it, but we didn't know if it occurred years before the individual died or if it happened around the same time as his death,' she said.
'I suspected it happened earlier and had something to do with the very unusual missing teeth.'
Using powerful X-rays to examine the specimen at the university, a team of scientists were able to reconstruct the fragment of the arrowhead in the jaw, using imaging techniques.
'We discovered that the missing teeth had nothing to do with the projectile,' Dr Lieverse said.
The experts discovered that the man had agenesis, where the two central incisors do not form.
The specimen is the only example ever documented by archaeologists to feature this genetic dental abnormality.
During scans, the researchers also solved the mystery of the embedded arrow tip.
Dr Lieverse believes the projectile is a piece of the one also found in the eye socket, suggesting it was probably removed from the man's face during a fight, or at burial.
Interestingly, there is very little history of violence in the region at that time – with only two more skeletons bearing evidence of fights – but 'a projectile fired into somebody's face is probably not an accident,' Dr Lieverse said.
A historical reconstruction: Using powerful X-rays to examine the specimen at the university, a team of scientists were able to reconstruct the fragment of the arrowhead in the jaw, (pictured) using imaging techniques
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