Exploring the Relationship Between Dental Wear and Status in Late Medieval Subadults From England

Dental wear patterns were recorded on 458 deciduous molar teeth, of 142 subadults from late medieval (AD 1086-1539) England, to explore the rela- tionship between dental wear and burial status of chil- dren. A new ordinal method for scoring dental wear stages on the deciduous molar teeth was devised. It was postulated that if a discernible relationship between den- tal wear stage and burial location could be seen then this could reflect a difference in diet between those receiving higher or lower status burial. The dental wear stages recorded were statistically similar for the denti- tions of subadults from different cemeteries, as well as from different burial locations, indicating a comparable diet for the children studied. Am J Phys Anthropol 150:433-441, 2013. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.