El microdesgaste dental como indicador de la dieta en grupos de la Prehistoria Reciente en la Península Ibéricauna aproximación metodológica a través de diferentes técnicas microscópicas

Abstract

Dental microwear allows to determine the physical and mechanical properties of the consumed foods, providing evidence of the preparation practices of the foodstuff. The origin and later intensification of farming economies contributed to major cultural, social, and economic transformations during the Recent Prehistory. The characterization of different dental microwear patterns provides, therefore, the possibility of interpreting different dietary practices of the societies of the past. The main objective of this Doctoral dissertation focuses on the characterization of the diet, through the analysis of dental microwear, of a set of Holocene bioarchaeological groups from the Iberian Peninsula, with the aim of deepening on the knowledge about the different subsistence strategies. From a methodological perspective, a second aim is the evaluation of the different methodologies applied to the study of dental microwear. The advantages and inconveniences of each of them will be discussed. The results obtained show the existence of different multi-causal specialisations within a general pattern of mixed diet of the Recent Prehistoric groups studied. Besides that, it has been noted that all the microscopic techniques employed here to analyze dental microwear are valid to characterize differing microwear patterns, and, thus, to discriminate between different types of diets. Furthermore, in this work we have developed an efficient and cost-effective alternative to document dental microwear patterns with the optical microscopy at high magnifications. In summary, the present work evidences that dental microwear is a reliable proxy for reconstructing the subsistence practices of past human groups, providing information about the techniques of previous processing of the foodstuff and the properties of the foodstuff itself. In addition, its complementation with other types of dietary approaches provides a wider perspective about the variability of the dietary practices of past human groups.