Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Mohammad Hossin Rezaei ¹
• Hassan Basafa ²
• Hamideh Sadat Mohammdipour ³
• Narges Hashemi ⁴
• Atefeh Beig Zadeh ⁵

¹ Assistant Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of Neyshabur

² Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of Neyshabur

³ Dental Materials Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

⁴ PhD in Stratigraphy and Paleontology, University College of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

⁵ MA in Archaeology, University of Neyshabur

Abstract

A study of dental elements can provide useful information about the diet and social, economic and biological status of the human population in the past. The nutritional status of the past human populations can be achieved by examining the portion of dental elements obtained. In this study, a total of 8 dental samples, four ancient samples (belonging to the Bronze Age) obtained from the site of Firouzeh Neyshabur and four other new samples (collected from the contemporary period) were retrieved from the Repair Clinics of the Mashhad Dentistry Faculty. To determine properties of the chemical structure of the enamel using the semi-quantitative analysis of elements by the Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX), the samples were sent to the Razi Metallurgical Laboratory of Tehran. Inhabitants of Shahrake Firouzeh,Site it could be posited that they mainly used vegetable and meat in their diet and seafood constituted part of their  dietary regime. Our result shows that the high levels of essential elements of teeth, such as calcium, phosphorus and fluorine, and the absence of any decay on enamels of dental samples derived from Shahrake Firouzeh demonstrate the relative dental health during that Bronze Age, which can be said to be the result of proper nutrition and access of people to resources of healthy drinking water in those areas.

Keywords

• Neyshabur
• Shahreke Firouzeh
• Bronze Age
• Teeth Mineral Elements
• Dietary Regime