Incisor wear. (Source: Lovell & Palichuk, Bioarchaeology of Marginalized People, 2019)
“When we study ancient societies, it can sometimes be difficult to tell who fulfilled which of the various day-to-day roles. For Ancient Egypt, we have a wealth of information, including pictorial records along with sculptures and figurines, buried with the deceased so they could have workers in the afterlife.But these depictions can be idealised, or leave things out. Bones, on the other hand, don’t lie – and the teeth of an Egyptian woman who lived over 4,000 years ago show that the lives of women back then may have been more varied than some records suggest.
Two patterns of wear on 16 of her 24 teeth are inconsistent with eating, which means she was using her teeth for something else; further analysis suggests she was a craftswoman.
This, according to a research team from the University of Alberta, is…
View original post 178 more words
