
A history of the Crusades, as told by crusaders' DNA - davesailer
https://phys.org/news/2019-04-history-crusades-told-crusaders-dna.html
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noncoml
Not a teeth missing?! The crusaders must have had excellent dental coverage!

But seriously, anyone who knows how can they have a full mouth of teeth at
that era can explain?

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tasty_freeze
Years back I recall reading an article about a skeleton which was found in the
SF bay area (I think), and the difficulty of finding out who it was. They knew
it was a woman and her approximate age, but because she had perfect teeth,
dental records would be of no use. On the other hand, the fact that she had
perfect teeth was itself a clue.

Skipping to the end of the story, she was a "mail order bride" from southeast
asia; her husband got tired of her, killed her, and buried her in a remote
spot. She had perfect teeth because she grew up eating a non-western diet with
no sugar/coke/etc, probably mostly vegetables, rice, and fish.

~~~
205guy
Also, Southeast Asia probably means drinking green tea, which equals fluoride,
thus good for teeth (up to a point).

Relatedly, I remember hearing of archaeologists finding skulls of "cave men"
(can't remember the time or place) with perfect teeth and signs of tooth picks
(grooves around the gum line). The implication was that cultural knowledge (or
perhaps just personal habits) had solved bad dental hygiene at times
throughout history--and it was repeatedly lost and found again. Could have
also been happenstance with natural fluoride in the water (how the effect was
discovered, I believe), or non-intentional as with the green tea.

