RESUMO
After almost 2000 years of local development, including limited trading with neighboring ethnic groups, the societies that occupied the oases of San Pedro de Atacama, Northern Chile, became part of the trade web of the Tiwanaku empire, between 500 and 1000 CE. Archaeological evidence tends to support the idea that the period under the influence of the altiplano (high plane) empire was very affluent. Here we investigate the possibility that this affluence had a positive impact on the health status of the Atacameneans, using the oral health as an indirect indicator of quality of life. Dental decay, dental abscess, dental wear, linear enamel hypoplasia, periodontal disease and dental calculus were analyzed on 371 skeletons from 12 sites from San Pedro de Atacama oases. We believe that if, indeed, there were better biological conditions during the altiplano influence, this could have been caused by the access to a more diversified food intake promoted by the intensification of the trading network established by Tiwanaku in the central-south Andes, of which San Pedro de Atacama became an important node.
Assuntos
Saúde Bucal/história , Chile , Dieta/história , Etnicidade/história , Feminino , Fósseis , História Antiga , Humanos , Masculino , Qualidade de Vida , Doenças Estomatognáticas/históriaRESUMO
Numerous written relicts, belletristic works (poems of Martial, Juvenal, Ovid etc.) indicate that oral hygiene and its tools (toothbrush, toothpick, use of tooth pastes and tooth-powder) were used long before our times. Already ancient people started to remove, file, dye and inlay teeth. The teeth were dyed red, green or black in Egypt, red or brown (with henna or betel) in India, white by Romans. The teeth decoration has a long but forgotten history. The most skillful and artistic work was done by the Maya's between 900 BC and 1500 AD. The modification of contours (more than fifty forms) of the incisors were practiced also in Mesoamerica. Dentistry was surely practiced in ancient Egypt, India, China, Greece and Rome, while odontology and especially suitable dental appliances arose only by Etruscan. Dental prosthesis, including bridges and simple retention bands were invented by the Etruscans 2500 years ago. These Etruscan bridges were worn mostly by females, suggesting that cosmetics was the principal dental concern. Some,--if not all--of the Roman and other prostheses have been purely ornamental. Orthodontic appliances are also Etruscan invention. The holes caused by caries were filled with garlic, incense, caraway seed in Egypt, with wood or lead in Rome, and with "silver-paste" (amalgam) in ancient China. The toothache was cured with poppy-tee, or hashish and nightshade plants (Solanaceae) in Egypt, Greece, Roman Empire while with coca (Erythroxylon coca) in South-America.