SAÚDE BUCAL – LAPA DO SANTO

Dental pathologies are used as a dietary proxy in bioarchaeological studies. As expected for generalist foragers living in a tropical environment, the elevated frequency of dental abscesses and caries has been reported for early Holocene Lagoa Santa, particularly among females. In an environment with a wide variety of tubers and fruits such as pequi (Caryocar brasiliense), jatobá (Hymenaea sp.) and araticum (Annona classiflora), it is expected that humans would have had a diverse diet instead of focusing exclusively on meat.