First evidence of complex dental practice

about 1300 BP in Mesoamerica

revealed by absolute geomagnetic intensity
AVTO GOGUITCHAICHVILI1, JUAN MORALES1, RAMIRO AGUAYO HARO2,
HUMBERTO QUIROZ CASTAÑON2 AND JASINTO ROBLES CAMACHO2

1 Servicio Arqueomagnético Nacional, Instituto de Geofisica, Unidad Michoacan, Universidad

Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Campus Morelia, 58190 Morelia, Mexico
(avto@geofisica.unam.mx)
2 Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Delegacion Michoacan, Madero Oriente 799,
Morelia, Mexico

Received: June 9, 2016; Revised: July 28, 2016; Accepted: August 10, 2016

ABSTRACT

Deliberated dental modifications and mutilations are known since prehistoric times.
The Mayas and other ancient cultures in Mesoamerica were considered pioneers of such
practice. The evidences of therapeutic intervention, however, are still poorly documented
and credible examples are extremely scarce. One of the burials excavated at the locality
of La Mina (Michoacan, Mexico) corresponds to a 3035 year old male individual named
Alvaro, who presented a well-marked dental deformation. Moreover, Alvaro had a quite
deep and symmetrical perforation in the upper right canine – a treatment similar to the
procedure of endodontics or root canal. The archaeological context of Alvaro’s habitat
was dated using the archaeomagnetic method applied to pottery samples unambiguously
correlated to the burial. The analysis supplied a time interval between 647 and 825 AD
suggesting the first evidence of complex dental practice in the Americas.

K e y w o r d s : archaeomagnetism, ancient Mesoamerica, prehispanic dentistry,

archaeomagnetic dating

1. INTRODUCTION

The most ancient evidence of dentistry dates back to the Neolithic period, probably
associated with the change in diets (Adler, 2013), while dental filling was discovered in
6500 BP in human tooth from Slovenia (Bernardini et al., 2012). The tooth perforations
using a bow drill, presumably to remove decayed tissues were observed in ca. 9000 cal
yr BP, in molars from a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan (Coppa, 2006). Recently, Oxilia
et al. (2015) reported the oldest known evidence of dental caries intervention, suggesting
at least some knowledge of disease treatment well before the Neolithic. Wade et al. (2012)
reported a computed tomography study of the remains of a Ptolemaic male mummy from
Thebes (35060 BC), one of three ancient Egyptian human mummies. This investigation

Stud. Geophys. Geod., 61 (2017), DOI: 10.1007/s11200-016-0851-3 (in print) i

© 2016 Inst. Geophys. CAS, Prague
 A. Goguitchaichvili et al.

demonstrates the packing of a large interproximal carious lesion with a protective linen
barrier. The dental packing described here is unique among ancient Egyptian mummies
studied to date, and supports the existence of a group of dental specialists practicing
interventional medicine in ancient Egypt.
Some of the oldest cases of deliberate dental modification come from Mesoamerica,
especially the Maya Area, and can be dated to 14001000 BC (Romero, 1958, 1960,
1965). Several investigations indicate that the phenomenon of teeth modification had its
peak during the period 7001400 AD (Tiesler, 2011). Traces of this custom have been
found in many parts of the world out of Europe (Milner and Larsen, 1991). However,
finds of the first three cases of deliberate dental modifications were found in 1990 in
materials from the Viking Age cemeteries at Fjälkinge and Trelleborg in Scania, Sweden
(Arcini, 2005). More recently, Arcini (2005) described filed furrows in the anterior part of
the dentition from 22 males, dated to the Viking Age, in Sweden. It is surmised that these
filed furrows should be considered deliberate dental modifications. Thus, Europe in
general and Sweden in particular should be added to the global occurrences of cultural
modifications of teeth.
The finding of skeletal remains was first reported by the end of December, 2013 near
to locality La Mina (Fig 1, Alvaro Obregon, State of Michoacan, Western Mexico) where
masonry work was carried out by local inhabitants. The site became very soon (January,
2015) the subject of archaeological intervention and excavation lead by INAH (Instituto
Nacional de Antropología e Historia). Several burial offerings that were part of the
funerary structures were revealed and identified. In total, 4 burials were recovered in situ.
The individuals were apparently buried at the time of their death. They were placed in
a fetal position (Fig. 2b,c) and their offerings included some utilitarian vessels (mainly
pottery) and remains of dogs.
One of the burials corresponds to a 3035 year old (at the time of death) male
individual named “Alvaro” who presented a well-marked dental deformation (Fig. 3).
Initially this behavior was interpreted as a result of some kind of work where the
systematic use of teeth as a tool was required. During the routine laboratory analysis and

Fig. 1. Location of La Mina site in Central Mexico. © Google.

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 Complex dental practice 1300 BP in Mesoamerica revealed by geomagnetic intensity

Fig. 2. Schematic location map of a) Alvaro (see the text for more details), and b) associated
pottery samples.

Fig. 3. a) A detailed view of Alvaro’s skull, b) well-marked dental deformation, and c) a hole in
the upper right canine.

consolidation of bone elements, it was observed that besides the aforementioned dental
deformation, Alvaro had a hole in the upper right canine (Fig. 3). Through the analysis
held in conjunction with dental specialists it was possible to determine that the tooth cited
above, presents a complex dental treatment similar to procedure of endodontics or root
canal.

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 A. Goguitchaichvili et al.

2. ARCHAEOMAGNETIC DATING

Archeomagnetism is an example of the interdisciplinary nature of most archeometric

research: It requires expertise from both earth sciences and archeology, and the results are
of benefit for both disciplines (Aitken, 1964; Sternberg, 2008). The geophysicist can gain
information about the magnetization of materials and the behavior of the geomagnetic
field, while the archeologist can use archeomagnetism as a dating tool for baked artifacts.
Archeomagnetism is based on the fact that baked clay artifacts contain small quantities of
magnetic minerals which acquire a magnetization generally parallel to the direction of the
Earth’s magnetic field and proportional to its intensity, indirectly providing a record of the
field. Based on this, archeological materials that are traditionally used in archeomagnetic
studies are in situ kilns, ovens, burnt walls or, only for archeointensity determinations,
displaced artifacts such as tiles, bricks, and pottery. Archeomagnetic dating consists in
comparing magnetic inclination, declination and intensity of an archeological artifact
against a known record of geomagnetic variation in the study region in order to associate
a date to the archeological piece under study.
We were able to retrieve an absolute geomagnetic intensity value (archaeointensity)
from two pottery samples (Fig. 2c and Table 1) associated to the Alvaro’s burial and thus
the interval of archaeological context may be estimated. Archaeointensity experiments
were carried out using the Thellier-type double heating method (Thellier and Thellier,
1959) as modified by Coe et al (1967, 1978). The heating and cooling runs were
performed in air using an ASC TD-48 palaeointensity oven, while remanent
magnetizations were measured with an AGICO JR6-A magnetometer. All studied
fragments were previously broken into at least 6 pieces and pressed into salt pellets to
facilitate their treatment as standard paleomagnetic samples (Morales et al., 2015). The
archaeointensity determination (Fig. 4) was carried out in 15 temperature steps, between
room temperature and 570C - a temperature at which the remanence of the specimens
was almost completely unblocked. The temperature reproducibility between two heating
to the same temperature was less than 2C, the laboratory field intensity was set to 45 T
and held with a precision better than 0.1 T. At each temperature step the samples were
heated twice: in zero field for the first heating and in presence of field for the second
heating. The partial thermoremanent magnetization (pTRM) checks were performed after
every second step throughout the whole experiment. The cooling rate dependence of
thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) was investigated following a modified procedure
to that described by Chauvin et al. (2000). At the end of experiments all specimens were
heated three more times at 560C, to create three consecutive ((fast (laboratory
assisted)/slow/fast)) TRMs under the same laboratory field. In order to minimize the
anisotropy effect of TRM each fragment is divided into at least six specimens and
embedded in salt pellets in six positions (±X, ±Y, ±Z) relative to a priori selected direction
of the sample. The magnetic field is then applied along the +Z direction. In this way,
anisotropy effects can be cancelled out or at least minimized as showed by Morales et al.
(2007, 2009, 2015).

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 Complex dental practice 1300 BP in Mesoamerica revealed by geomagnetic intensity

Table 1. Archaeointensity results at sample level. N: the number of heating steps used for the
intensity determination; TminTmax: the temperature interval of intensity determination; Bcorr:
archeointensity value corrected for cooling rate effect and associated error (B); f : the fraction of
NRM used for intensity determination; g: the gap factor; q: the quality factor as defined by Coe et
al. (1978).

TminTmax Bcorr
Specimen N B f g q
[C] [T]
13367 9 250570 41.2 1.4 0.66 0.89 17.6
13368 9 250570 40.7 1.3 0.68 0.89 20.4
13369 9 250570 44.2 1.4 0.69 0.89 14.6
13370 9 250570 44.9 2.1 0.71 0.87 16.8
13371 9 250570 37.4 0.8 0.67 0.88 25.8
13372 9 250570 38.3 1.1 0.68 0.90 18.6
13373 8 300570 37.8 1.2 0.62 0.86 13.2
13374 7 350570 37.2 1.1 0.63 0.87 13.3
13375 7 350570 38.4 1.3 0.64 0.85 15.1
13376 7 350570 39.6 1.4 0.63 0.86 12.6
Mean 39.9
St. Dev. 2.7

Fig. 4. Left: Representative natural remanent magnetization (NRM) vs. thermomagnetic

remanent magnetization (TRM) plots (Arai-Nagata plots); right: associated orthogonal vector
demagnetization diagrams for the representative samples.

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 A. Goguitchaichvili et al.

3. MAIN RESULTS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

Following thermal demagnetization experiments, 12 samples yielding stable,

essentially one component magnetizations with blocking temperatures compatible with
a Ti-poor titanomagnetite phase were selected for absolute paleointensity measurements.
Several basic requirements should be satisfied for each archaeointensity determination in
order to consider them reliable: (1) The number of aligned points on the Arai-Nagata plot
should exceed 5; (2) A fraction factor f (Coe et al., 1978) higher than 0.33; (3) The quality
factor q > 5; (4) Archaeointensity determination obtained from Arai-Nagata diagrams
must not have a clearly concave up shape. This was assessed visually; (5) No evidence of
natural remanent magnetization (NRM) end points deviations towards the direction of
laboratory field. (6) Positive ‘pTRM’ checks i.e. the deviation of pTRM’ checks were less
than 15%.
Ten out of 12 analyzed pottery samples yielded technically acceptable determinations
(Table 1). For these samples, the NRM fraction f used for determination ranges between
0.71 and 0.62, while the quality factor q from 12.6 to 25.8; (Table 1). The individual
archaeointensity values obtained in this study range from 37.2 to 44.9 T.

a)

50
Latitude N [ ° ]

40

30

20

10

0
-140 -130 -120 -110 -100 -90 -80 -70
Longitude E [ ° ]

b) c)
Probability Density [10-3]

60
4
Intensity [ mT ]

55

50 3

45 2 65%
40 1
35 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Year Year
Fig. 5. Archeomagnetic dating of La Mina site. a) Geographical location of the site, b) intensity
reference curve calculated from the SHA14KDIF global geomagnetic field model (Pavón-Carrasco
et al., 2014). c) Probability density function (PDF), calculated at 65% probability level, after
comparison of the site mean archeointensity value with the corresponding reference curve (Pavón-
Carrasco et al., 2011).

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 Complex dental practice 1300 BP in Mesoamerica revealed by geomagnetic intensity

The results of archaeomagnetic dating (Fig. 5) using the last model SHADIF14K of
Pavón-Carrasco et al. (2011, 2014) combined with unpublished data from Servicio
Arqueomagnetico Nacional (Mexico) yielded a time interval between 647 and 825 A.D. as
the best estimate of the archaeological site under study. It should be noted that initially,
the site was dated between 1300 and 1900 A.D. based on some empirical considerations.
In our knowledge, other similar case of an individual yielding a complex dental practice
comes from the study of Garza-Gomez (2003) near to Cuernavaca (near to Mexico City)
reporting much younger dates between 13001500 A.D. Our results suggest the earliest
evidence of complex dental practice in the Americas.

Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by CONACYT

Project n° 252149.

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