HUMAN DENTAL REMAINS FROM GOUGH'S CAVE 



31 



Table 6 Total Crown Area (TCA) for Gough's Cave (Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene) compared to early and modem populations. The TCA is calculated 

 without M3 data. Samples that contain only males are indicated as M; pooled data for both sexes are designated as M&F. 



TCA (mm 2 )Il-M2 



Area/Site 



Sex 



Source 



1158 



Nubia (Mesolithic East Africa) 



M 



Calcagno 1986 



1103 



Mahadaha (Mesolithic India) 



M&F 



Lukacs & Hemphill 1992 



1054 



Natufian (Epi-Paleolithic Levant) 



M&F 



Dahlberg 1960 



1037 



Mehrgarh (Neolithic Pakistan) 



M&F 



Lukacs 1985 



1034 



Gough's Cave (Late Paleolithic-Mesolithic) 



M&F 



Present study 



981 



Jomon (Early Japan) 



M 



Brace & Nagai 1982 



981 



Anglo-Saxon (Early Britain) 



M 



Lavelle 1968 



966 



Britain (Recent) 



M 



Lavelle 1968 



910 



Khoisan (Recent South Africa) 



M 



Haeussler et al 1989; van Reenan 1982 



In order to compare Gough's Cave with published data for 

 Holocene populations, the results are based on measurements for 1 1 - 

 M2 (Table 6). According to Brace (1980), differences of more than 

 100 mm 2 summed TCA are significant statistically, while differences 

 of more than 50 mm 2 are probably significant. The TCA values for 

 Gough's Cave are closest with the incipient agriculturalists of 

 Neolithic Mehrgarh (Pakistan) with only 3 mm 2 difference, and 

 Levant Natufians (20 mm 2 ). Four other populations were within 100 

 mm 2 difference: the Anglo-Saxons (53 mm 2 ), Jomon (53 mm 2 ), 

 Recent Britain (68 mm 2 ) and Mesolithic Mahadaha in Indo-Gangetic 

 India (69 mm 2 ). Gough's Cave TCA values are unlike those of Late 

 Pleistocene Nubia (124 mm 2 ) and modern sub-Saharan Khoisan- 

 speakers (124 mm 2 ). 



A similar pattern appears in the Penrose size component (Table 7), 

 with Levant Natufians (0.02), Mehrgarh (0.04) and Mahadaha (0.05) 

 most similar to Gough's Cave. The component for Anglo-Saxon 

 (0.33), Jomon (0.39), and Nubia (0.59) show less similarity. Recent 

 Britain (0.97) and Khoisan (1.14) are least like Gough's Cave in 

 occlusal crown size. The two groups that show closest similarity in 

 Penrose shape are the Natufians (0.87) and Mehrgarh (0.97), mirror- 

 ing the size component results. However, the remaining sample 

 indicates moderate similarity (Jomon = 1.07,Nubia= 1.10,Mahadaha 

 = 1 .24, Khoisan = 1 .34) with Anglo-Saxon (2.39) and Recent Britain 

 (4.22) the most dissimilar to Gough's Cave in shape component. 



The differences between the size and shape results may be due to 

 several factors. The most likely explanation is that the size compo- 

 nent results reflect sexual dimorphism in tooth size. Gough's Cave, 

 Natufians, Mehrgarh and Mahadaha (the most similar in size compo- 

 nent results) are all from pooled samples of males and females. All 

 other data are from males only. 



Table 7 Results of Penrose statistic (Shape/Size) for Gough's Cave 

 sample (Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene) compared with eight other 

 populations. 





Gough' 



s Cave sample 







Size 



Shape 



Combined 





component 



component 



statistic 



Natufian (M&F) 



0.02 



0.87 



0.89 



Mehrgarh (M&F) 



0.04 



0.97 



1.01 



Mahadaha (M&F) 



0.05 



1.24 



1.29 



Anglo-Saxon (M) 



0.33 



2.39 



2.72 



Jomon (M) 



0.39 



1.07 



1.46 



Nubia (M) 



0.59 



1.10 



1.69 



Recent British (M) 



0.97 



4.22 



5.19 



Khoisan (M) 



1.14 



1.34 



2.48 



Another possibility is that the TCA and Penrose size statistic, both 

 of which include anterior and posterior teeth, may reflect apportion- 

 ment differences within populations (Harris & Rathbun 1991). Size 

 differences between incisor/canine and premolar/molar fields within 

 individuals may explain why Recent Britain appears so dissimilar to 

 Gough's Cave in size component, yet so similar in TCA value. 

 Incisor breadth ratio (Table 8) shows that Recent Britain has the most 

 reduced lateral incisors (IB = 0.72) when compared to Gough's Cave 

 (IB = 0.83), yet the molar crown area for M1M2 (Table 9) indicates 

 the molars are similar in size for both groups. 



When both metric and morphology differences are compared 

 (Table 10) the data reveal the following consistent patterns: 



1 . Gough's Cave is most like early populations of South/Southwest 

 Asia, including Pakistan (Mehrgarh) and the Levant (Natufians) 

 in TCA and Penrose size/shape components. 



2. Gough's Cave is also similar to other early North Europe popul- 

 ations (in TCA and DAS), although published data for North 

 Europe were unavailable for Penrose size/shape analysis. 



3 . Both metric and morphology results suggest that Late Pleistocene 

 East Africa (Nubia) and sub-Saharan Africans (modern Khoisan) 

 are most dissimilar to Gough's Cave. The DAS morphological 

 data for Late Pleistocene North Africans (Iberomaurusian) sug- 

 gest a much closer dental similarity to Gough's Cave than other 

 African regions. 



4. Differences within the British Isles suggest Gough's Cave is 

 unlike Anglo-Saxon (53 mm 2 difference) and Recent Britain (68 

 mm 2 difference) in TCA I1-M2 value, but more similar with Late 

 Pleistocene North Europe (23 mm 2 difference, for available TCA 

 I1-M3 data). Both size and shape components indicate Gough's 

 Cave is dissimilar to Anglo-Saxon, and even less similar to 

 Recent Britain. The DAS data, however, suggest close morpho- 

 logical similarities between Gough's Cave and early North Europe. 

 The discrepancies may reflect temporal fluctuations in environ- 

 ment/subsistence, with the metric data more sensitive than 

 morphology to these variables. In addition, sexual dimorphism 

 and apportionment of tooth size may also have an effect. 



Pathology/occlusal attrition/crown chipping: Lack of carious 

 teeth, periodontal pathology and low instance of enamel defects in 

 Gough's Cave is well within the range of other hunter/gatherer 

 populations (Cook & Buikstra 1979; Leigh 1925; Turner 1979). The 

 one individual with less than 2 mm of root exposure between CEJ 

 and the alveolar border is not indicative of periodontal disease, but is 

 most likely the result of further root eruption to compensate for 

 attrition, and correlated with age (Clarke & Hirsch 199 1 ). Similarly, 

 there is one young adult with antemortem tooth loss, suggesting an 

 occupationally related cause rather than due to carious activity or 

 periodontal disease. 



