Researchers can learn much about a person through their teeth. This is even true for people who lived 1500 years ago in early medieval Germany.
A team of researchers led by Michaela Harbeck and Maren Velte from the Bavarian State Collection for Anthropology in Munich were able to analyze human teeth from various medieval cemeteries in Bavaria, which is now part of eastern Germany. They mainly come from the period around the year 500 AD.
Teeth are formed during childhood and are characterized by little or no remodeling during lifetime. This developmental quality makes them an ideal “archive of childhood.” Strontium isotopes, for example, indicate a person’s geographical origin, while analyses of carbon and nitrogen provide information on diet. Serial isotope analysis shows the course of nutrition from birth to around 20 years of age. This method reveals the transition process from breast milk feeding in infancy to the inclusion of solid food during early childhood.
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