**Socioeconomic Influence on Caries Susceptibility in Juvenile Individuals with Limited Dental Care: Example from an Early Middle Age Population (Great Moravia, 9th-10th Centuries A.D., Czech Republic)**

Virginie Gonzalez-Garcin1, Gaëlle Soulard1, Petr Velemínský2, Petra Stránská3 and Jaroslav Bruzek1,4 *1UMR 5199 PACEA, Anthropologie des Populations Passées et Présentes, Université Bordeaux1, Talence, 2Department of Anthropology, National Museum, Prague, 3Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, 4Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, West Bohemian University, Pilsen, 1France 2,3,4Czech Republic* 

### **1. Introduction**

34 Contemporary Approach to Dental Caries

Waldron, T. (2009). *Palaeopathology. Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology.* Cambridge University

Walker, P.L. & Erlandson, J.M. (1986). Dental evidence for prehistoric dietary change on the northern Channel Islands, California. *American Antiquity* 51(2):375-383. Walker, P.L. & Hewlett, B.S. (1990). Dental health, diet and social status among central

Walker, M..J., Zapata, J., Lombardi, A.V. & Trinkaus, E. (2011). New Evidence of Dental Pathology in 40,000-year-old Neandertals. *Journal of Dental Research* 90 (4): 428-432.

Watt, M.E., Lunt, D.A. & Gilmouv, B.H. (1997). Caries prevalence in the permanent dentition

Wesolowski, V. (2006). Caries prevalence in skeletal series – Is it possible to compare? *Memoria do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro* 101 (Supll. II):139-145. White, C.D. (1994). Dietary Dental Pathology and Cultural Change in the Maya. In: *Strength* 

Wiggs, R. & Lobprise, H. (1997). *Veterinary dentistry: principles and practice.* Lippincott-Raven

Wrangham, R. (2009*). Catching fire: How cooking made us human.* Basic Books, New York.

of a mediaeval population from the southwest of Scotland. *Archives of Oral Biology*

*in Diversity*. Herring, D.A. & Chan, L. (Eds.). pp. 279–302. Canadian Scholar's Press,

African foragers and farmers. *American Anthropologist* 92: 382-98.

Press, New York.

42 (9): 601-620.

Publishers, Philadelphia.

Toronto.

Dental growth is recognized to be less influenced by environmental factors than by genetics (Halcrow & Tayles, 2008; Saunders et al., 2000; Scheuer & Black, 2000a). However, it has been demonstrated that dental health is partly conditioned by the differential enamel susceptibility of environmental attack (sugars, bacterial flora, etc.) (Hillson, 1979; Johansson et al., 1994; König & Navia, 1995; Navia, 1994). In an earlier article published in HOMO, 2010, vol. 61, p. 421-439, our results showed that there is some influence of lifestyle on dental health of juvenile individuals (Garcin et al., 2010). Four populations belonged from rural and urban, coastal and inland lifestyles were compared in that paper. We would like, in this chapter, to refine these results with the evaluation of the influence of socioeconomic status on dental health in juvenile individuals with limited dental care. The point of view is focused on tooth development and enamel quality rather than strict caries analyses.

The influence of socioeconomic status on health is a very common topic on living populations (e.g. Alvarez & Navia, 1989; Greksa et al., 2007; Klein and Palmer, 1941; O'Sullivan et al., 1992; Van de Poel et al., 2007). One of the main biases to study these populations is the difficulty to define the environmental framework of the analysis. It is nearly the same in past populations but they have the advantage of the sample size (especially on children). However, most studies on past and historic populations evaluating both dental enamel hypoplasia and caries, are based on adult remains only (Barthelemy et al., 1999; Belcastro et al., 2007; Cucina et al., 2006; Esclassan et al., 2009; Palubeckaité et al.,

Socioeconomic Influence on Caries Susceptibility in Juvenile Individuals

transition between a rural life and a progressive urbanization.

al., 2011).

**2.1 Historical background** 

socioeconomic classes at that time.

with Limited Dental Care: Example from an Early Middle Age Population … 37

In this way, the archaeological site of Mikulčice-Valy (cf. Fig. 1) offers many advantages and the Great Moravian Empire is a specific historical period which allows studying the

Fig. 1. Situation of the archaeological site under study in relation to current Czech Republic and the location of the Great Moravia in medieval Europe (box adapted from Havelkova et

Till the end of the 8th century, life in Eastern Europe is rather rural with no clear organization and subject to the different waves of migration. Great Moravia was the first Slavic state formation. It was accompanied with a progressive Christianization. The Great Moravian Empire was funded by the Prince Mojmír the 1st (833-846) (Böhm et al., 1963), from different Slavic populations of the northern Danube River. They took advantage from the conflicts between Frankish and Avars in order to found a structured state, bringing together different principalities (Leger, 1868). On the whole, the hierarchic organization is similar to those in Western Europe, with a clear dependency of the peasant farmer to the aristocratic class (Poláček, 2008). With its small territory, the Great Moravian Empire is a privileged area to study the mutation between rural lifestyle to urbanization. Moreover, the principalities are founded around centres of power such as Staré Město, Nitra, or Děvín (Conte, 1986). Mikulčice-Valy was one of these power centres, bringing together the different

2002; Wright, 1997), while it is well accepted that juveniles, and thus their skeletons, are the most sensitive to social and environmental conditions (Bennike et al., 2005; Humphrey & King, 2000; Lewis, 2007; Lewis & Gowland, 2007; Pinhasi et al., 2005). That is why this new study is focused only on juveniles. Several biases must be taken into account with this type of analysis (e.g. Hillson, 2001), but they will be discussed later in the chapter.

We will assess the dental health of juvenile individuals. To be clear till the beginning of this chapter, the main definitions used in this study are given below:


The aim of this study is to compare two contrasting populations (upper social class *vs.* middle social class in a settlement in expansion), in order to understand how these biological traits are linked to socioeconomic conditions. Bearing in mind the limitations of such studies, such as the osteological paradox effect (Wood et al., 1992) and some methodological biases (Hillson, 2001), special care has been taken in order to ensure the reproducibility of the results and reliable interpretations. We also would like to discuss the difficulty to differentiate the environmental part from the genetic part in dental mineralization and thus in enamel susceptibility to develop caries and hypoplasias.
