Human gnaw marks on bones (Pilot experimental analysis)

Vol.7,No.1(2016)

Abstract
In anthropological and archeological context the human gnaw marks produce information about the socio-cultural background of studied recent and ancient communities, especially in their dining attitudes and habits. Our paper presents a selected published methodologies used to study this topic and tests the human gnaw marks on experimental sample from Slovak Republic. This sample with 40 volunteers was divided into two groups – one was informed about the aim of the experimental project and the other remained uninformed. The prevalence of pits and scores caused by human incisors was recorded, followed by notches after secondary butchering processes (observed in both samples) and cut marks after table-knives (observed only in one sample). Finally, we have to admit, that according to the inter-sample analysis the style of dining and eating habits perhaps affects the appearance and stage of damages caused by human teeth.

Keywords:
human gnaw marks; experimental study; Slovak Republic; dining and eating habits
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