Objectives

This study aimed to reconstruct the dietary behavior of two early medieval individuals who display gnathic malformation.

Material

Two skeletons affected by temporomandibular ankylosis were analyzed, one from the Great Moravian burial site of Rajhradice (9th century AD, Czech Republic), and the other from the Avar burial site of Schӧnkirchen (8th century AD, Austria).

Methods

Carbon and nitrogen isotopic values were measured from the bone collagen of both individuals. In the Rajhradice case, where the childhood origin of ankylosis is deduced, isotopic analysis of dentine sections was performed.

Results

Both individuals show isotopic values within the range of variation of a contemporaneous population sample. There was no observable dietary change in the Rajhradice individual that could be linked to the occurrence of ankylosis.

Conclusions

Both individuals consumed diets typical for their populations. They appear to not have restricted access to foodstuffs, namely animal protein, which would likely have had to be served in liquid (e.g. milk) or in a highly mashed form to compensate for insufficient mastication.

Significance

This finding provides specific evidence of care provided to these two afflicted members of past populations.

Limitations

Though the proportion of animal protein is an important indicator of the quality of diet, many other aspects of diet – such as micronutrient content – elude stable isotope analysis.

Suggestions for further research

Amino acid compound specific isotope analyses of collagen would provide deeper insight into both the diet and physiology of the affected individuals.

中文翻译：

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两个中世纪早期颞下颌关节强直患者的饮食行为。

目标

这项研究旨在重建两个表现出颌骨畸形的中世纪早期个体的饮食行为。

材料

分析了两个受颞下颌关节强直影响的骨骼，一个来自 Rajhradice 的大摩拉维亚墓地（公元 9 世纪，捷克共和国），另一个来自 Schӧnkirchen 的 Avar 墓地（公元 8 世纪，奥地利）。

方法

从两个个体的骨胶原中测量碳和氮同位素值。在 Rajhradice 案例中，推断出儿童强直的起源，对牙本质切片进行了同位素分析。

结果

两个个体都显示出同期种群样本变异范围内的同位素值。在 Rajhradice 个体中没有观察到可能与强直的发生有关的饮食变化。

结论

两个人都消耗了他们人群中典型的饮食。他们似乎没有限制获取食物，即动物蛋白，这些食物很可能必须以液体（例如牛奶）或高度捣碎的形式供应，以弥补咀嚼不足。

意义

这一发现提供了为过去人群中这两个受折磨的成员提供护理的具体证据。

限制

虽然动物蛋白的比例是饮食质量的一个重要指标，但饮食的许多其他方面——例如微量营养素含量——无法进行稳定同位素分析。

进一步研究的建议

胶原蛋白的氨基酸化合物特定同位素分析将提供对受影响个体的饮食和生理的更深入了解。