Archaeology

Taphonomic processes have the potential to affect microscopic wear on teeth and to modify the wear patterns so as to confound dietary reconstructions based on dental microwear which was formed during the lifetime of an animal. This study describes a series of experiments which were conducted to simulate various taphonomic agents and to record their effect on dental microwear. Three types of experiment were carried out in order to explain anomalous microscopic wear that had been found on the dentition of several hominoid specimens from the 15 M.a. site of Paşalar in Turkey. The effect of two different acids-citric and hydrochloric acid-on dental microwear was investigated. Modification to microscopic wear caused by alkali (carbonatite ash) was examined in the second set of experiments. Lastly, the effect of abrasion by three different size classes of sediment from the site of Paşalar-quartz pebbles (grain size varied from 2,000-11,000 µm), coarse sand (grain size ranged from 500-1,000 µm), and medium-sized sand (grain diameters were between 250 and 500 µm)-was investigated. Results confirm previous findings that the taphonomic modification of dental microwear is readily identifiable and causes the obliteration rather than secondary alteration of microwear features. The experiments show that both citric and hydrochloric acid affect dental microwear but to varying degrees, whereas alkali did not cause any modification of microscopic features. The different size classes of sediment also had different effects on the dental microwear. The largest size sediment (quartz pebbles) polished the enamel and removed finer microwear features. The coarse sand, however, did not have any effect on the microwear. The greatest amount of abrasion was caused by the smallest sediment particles-the medium-sized sand. Several hominoid dental specimens from Paşalar display similar microscopic wear to the two types of acid erosion and the abrasion caused by the medium-sized sands. Am

The discovery of a burial pit at Ug˘urlu on the Aegean island of Gökçeada, in which bodies were deposited one on top of another, raises questions about whether this apparently careless discarding of the dead was local burial custom or a ceremonial ritual.