Vanity Fair: Archaeological Case Studies in Ancient Dentistry Revisited

Abstract

<p>The history of dentistry begins in Antiquity and our understanding from this time through to the Early Modern Period is largely dependent on the interpretation of dental artefacts recovered in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. These were collected and interpreted often by rank amateurs, commonly enthusiastic dentists, keen to prove dentistry a specialty within medicine. However, their interpretations were limited by the nature of dentistry itself, which has become a science rather than a trade only in comparatively recent times (the second half of the twentieth century); for example a true understanding of occlusal changes through life is a recent accomplishment. Over the same time period quantitative scientific analyses have advanced, providing new avenues of investigation in dating and elemental analysis. Unanswered questions resulting from the early limitations of artefact interpretation can now be addressed through these new analytical techniques. The collection of papers presented here applies novel, analytical techniques to museum artefacts, and in so doing, provides a new understanding of both this early history of dentistry, as well as insight into social and gendered factors with which it was intricately related.</p>