Microwear Texture Analysis and the Diet of Paleolithic Hominins

Sireen El Zaatari (Becaria del Proyecto Europeo Synthesys con el Prof. Antonio Rosas)

Conventional methods of dental microwear analyses have proven to be very

useful for the dietary reconstructions of various species. Yet new advances in the field

Of dental microwear are expanding even further the potential of these

techniques.

Microwear texture analysis is a new automated and repeatable approach to

The study of dental microwear where the scanning confocal profilometry

Replaces the scanning electron microscopy and scale-sensitive fractal analysis is

introduced as a tool for 3-D analysis of microwear features. Studies

employing this technique for the analysis of occlusal molar microwear

Patterns of various extant and extinct species including hominins have attested

to its efficiency in providing insights into the dietary habits of these taxa.

Specifically the application of this technique to a large

number of Paleolithic hominins from their wide temporal and geographic

Ranges has shed light on behavioral aspects that distinguish Upper Paleolithic

Modern humans from their predecessors i.e. the Neandertals and Pre-Neandertals

In western Eurasia. The major results of the occlusal molar microwear texture

analyses reveal differences in the patterns of dietary adaptations of these

hominins: whereas the Neandertals adapted to changing paleoecological

Conditions by altering their diets Upper Paleolithic humans altered their

technologies to free themselves from such environmental constraints and obtain access to

preferred food resources

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