Christopher Schmidt publishes new book

Christopher Schmidt, professor of anthropology and director of the Bioarchaeology Laboratory and Anthropology Graduate Program, published a book, “Long ‘on’ the Tooth: Dental Evidence of Diet.”

The book includes state-of-the-art dental microwear texture data and focuses on populations largely overlooked in archaeological and dental anthropology volumes. It is also the first dental anthropology book to integrate dental pathology and dental microwear texture analysis.

Description:
“Long ‘on’ the Tooth: Dental Evidence of Diet” addresses human dental macroscopic and microscopic wear, as well as dental disease, as indicators of diet. The book focuses primarily on 350 pre-contact humans from North America dating from approximately 5,500 to 600 years ago. These populations had subsistence strategies ranging from terrestrial foraging to intensive maize agriculture. The study makes intra- and intergroup comparisons to elucidate dietary nuances that are largely beyond the reach of other means of dietary reconstruction. Finally, the book discusses the importance of using multiple dietary indicators in unison in order to provide paleodietary insights.