Oral Health, Lifestyle, and Mortality in Pre-European Marquesas Islands A Study of Hane Site Burials (Ua Huka)

Abstract

This article presents a study of the relationship between oral health, lifestyle, mortality, and the deterioration of environmental conditions and associated effects on food availability and population dynamics in the pre-European (before 1791) Northern Marquesas Islands. Previous studies have shown that, despite adverse living conditions, individuals from Nuku Hiva (Ha’atuatua site) and Ua Huka (Hane site) show no evidence of significant oral pathology in adults but a relatively high number of subadult deaths, with some showing evidence of lesions attributable to infection, malnutrition and/or metabolic disease at Ha’atuatua. Our oral health study of a small series of individuals from Vigneron’s excavations at Hane, more likely dated from A.D. 1400–1500 with five new accelerator mass spectrometry dates, shows moderate rates of caries, low to moderate rates of advanced occlusal wear, high rates of advanced alveolar resorption and calculus, and high rates of antemortem tooth loss. These findings point to dietary practices centered on terrestrial foods, consistent with the archaeological and ethnohistorical record highlighting the predominance of breadfruit arboriculture. Unexpectedly, our results also suggest both cultural practices and individual life histories, with traumatic tooth loss related to specific activities and/or the deliberate removal of incisors, which have not previously been documented. Differences in the frequency of oral pathology between the previously studied Hane (Sinoto) and Hane (Vigneron) series appear to reflect variation in age at death and mortality patterns, possibly associated with differing living conditions experienced by the individuals buried in two distinct areas of the Hane site.