Ancient Teeth Reveal Bronze Age Gender Inequality

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Analysing 2500-year-old teeth has thrown open a window onto life and gender inequality during Bronze Age China.

The University of Otago-led research has cast light on breastfeeding, weaning, evolving diets and the difference between what girls and boys were eating, lead researcher Dr. Melanie Miller, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Otago's Department of Anatomy, says.

The teeth come from the Central Plains of China and date from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, between 771 and 221 BC. Despite their extreme antiquity (they are as old as Athens' Parthenon and the Old Testament sacking of Jerusalem's First Temple) the teeth's dentin-the bony tissue forming the bulk of our teeth's structure-was full of information.

Using stable isotope analysis, researchers were able to show the types and amounts of various elements in the dentin, including carbon and nitrogen, unlocking information about the individuals' life and diet. That enabled a picture to be drawn of a changing society, Dr. Miller says.

[...] The analysis of 23 individuals from two different archaeological sites shows children were breastfed until they were between 2.5 and four years old, with weaning onto solids-consisting mostly of wheat and soybean-occurring slightly earlier in females than in males.

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