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Semi-related: When I was in the canyons of New Mexico learning about various tribes and their lifestyles, I learned that many died from tooth-related infections. This is because the mortars they used were made from softer stone that crumbled in the grinding process (when they grind maize). These tiny pieces of stone essentially ground down their teeth.

If I remember correctly, because of this their average lifespan was just over 30 yrs.



Most people using stone grinding wheels throughout history has the same issue, from the beginning of farming up until a couple hundred years ago in Europe say. Archeologists use the amount of wear on a skeletons teeth to determine their age quite accurately.


This is also part of why white bread was historically considered healthier - removing the wheat germ and bran kind of faked the look of stone-grain-free bread.


Would you happen to have a reference on that?


A quick Google Books search found,

  Tosefta Berachot: Translated Into English with a Commentary

  https://books.google.com/books?id=ronqNAPipaEC&pg=PA189


Ah, an even better reference, from 1906, which also mentions teeth.

  Lieut.-Colonel Allan Cunningham desired to contrast the
  highly scientific process of grinding in use at the present
  day in all civilised counties with the unscientific process
  of grinding on a very large scale amongst the huge
  population of North-West India, which was essentially a
  wheat-eating population. The wheat was ground there in hand
  stone mills; the grinding was coarse, and separation of the
  bran very imperfect, there being a good deal of bran in the
  so-called flour. The bread was unleavened bread, whereas the
  bread eaten in this country was leavened bread, which made
  in immense difference in its effect on the constitution. The
  native flour was simply kneaded with water, and quickly
  heated over a griddle. With the addition of a little milk,
  butter, and salt, that was the staple food of the
  population.  The effect of the diet was that the population
  were inferior on the whole in physique to Europeans, but it
  must remembered that they did not have a varied diet. The
  people had extremely beautiful teeth which they carefully
  cleaned. One very curious effect, which was always ascribed
  to the eating of the native ground what, was that the
  natives were extraordinarily subject to stone, even little
  children frequently having bigs stones in the bladder.

  Journal of the Society of Arts, December 21, 1906.

  https://books.google.com/books?id=DfpFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA127


Thank you!


My ancestors threw off the archaelogists by only dining on the soft heated innards of dead animals. Their teeth were a pointed exercise in falsification.


Just a reminder that low life expectancy is largely the product of high infant mortality rates bringing down the average. If you were to survive to adulthood in the ancient world you would probably not die at 30, but something more like 60.


Sometimes I hate statistics.


The same problem was with pharaohs. The stone tools that were used to make bread consisted mainly of sand which grinded ancient egyptians' teeth. National Geographic magazine had some x-rays that indicated that they were in pain.


Average lifespan isn't a particularly useful measurement for those who have survived infancy due to extremely high infant mortality rates in the past.

Individual life expectancy changes each year of your life based on how many years you have already survived. (See: actuarial life tables)




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