Conditions of the Oral Cavity in Early Bronze Age Anatolia: Reconstruction of Dietary Behavior, Biological Impact, and Social Structure
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Authors
Smith, Emily
Issue Date
2025
Type
Dissertation
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
The Early Bronze Age (EBA; 3000-2000 BCE) in Anatolia is recognized as a period of increased social stratification, expansive trade, urbanization, agricultural intensification, craft specialization in metallurgy, and socioeconomic shifts. This combination of sociocultural and sociopolitical changes distinguishes the EBA from the preceding Neolithic and Chalcolithic. Most research supporting these extensive changes stems from archaeological research, while more recent trends in reconstructing the EBA have followed biocultural approaches in bioarchaeology studies. Moreover, even fewer investigations seek to answer questions with evidence from the oral cavity. This dissertation intends to examine social organization from the EBA site of Karataş-Semayük (Karataş; 2700-2300 BCE) located on the Elmalı Plain of Anatolia, by combining several conditions of the oral cavity (i.e., dental caries, dental calculus, periapical lesions, periodontal disease, antemortem tooth loss, dental wear, dental chipping, and atypical dental wear). The oral cavity provides optimal biocultural evidence due to the entangled relationship between diet, food preparation, non-alimentary application of teeth, cultural modifications, trauma, hygiene, and pathological conditions of the oral cavity. The study is centered on the 2733 deciduous and permanent teeth of subadult and adult individuals (n = 274) curated at the Human Behavior Ecology and Archeometry Laboratory (IDEA Lab) at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Türkiye. To contextualize the results from Karataş, comparisons are made to sites through the Neolithic to EBA, including the sites Çayönü Tepesi, Aşıklı Höyük, Çatalhöyük, Tepecik-Çiftlik, Hakemi Use, Çamlıbel Tarlası, İkiztepe, Bakla Tepe, Titriş Höyük, and Salat Tepe. Throughout the findings, the dental conditions indicated the similarities across the intersectional identities represented at Karataş. Limited differences in dental conditions between sex and social status at Karataş suggest that the inhabitants generally shared resources and habits. Slight differences between dental chipping and dental calculus frequencies by burial location indicate the potential of very few individuals having different dietary and non-alimentary habits. While age groupings displayed differences in dental conditions, this is expected due to the progressive nature of dental conditions. In addition to the intrasite findings, the intersite comparisons on dental conditions suggest that Karataş aligns with the rise of and expansive reliance on agriculture in Anatolia following the Ceramic Neolithic. This dissertation serves and advocates as 1) a further biocultural illustration of the social organization during the EBA in Anatolia and 2) an example of the application of multiple dental conditions when studying the oral cavity to capture the entangled relationships between conditions and extrinsic factors.