Morphological features of human molars of archaeological and contemporary origin

Sa？etak Dental anthropology is a branch of bioarcheology which helps in analyzing the historical questions that couldn't be explained due to lack of historical sources. Analyzing dental samples from medieval and contemporary time using the Arizona State University Dental Anthropological System shows changes in patterns of nutrition and disease over many generations of a society and also reconstructs human migration and tracks population growth or decline. Purpose: the intention of this examination was to establish the differences between archaeological and recent population in morphological features of maxillar and mandibular molars. Materials and methods: the study included 200 molars, 89 of them were of archeological origin whereas 111 were from recent population. Features analyzed on maxillary molars were: metaconus (distobuccal cusp), metaconulus (distal cusp), hypoconus (distolingual cusp) and Carabelli's trait. However, characteristics revised on mandibular molars were: anterior fovea (precuspidal fossa), groove pattern, middle trigonid crest, distal trigonid crest, deflecting wrinkle, molar cusp number, hypoconulid (cusp 5), entoconulicid (cusp 6) and metaconulid (cusp 7). Results: only hypoconus, a distopalatinal cusp of upper molars has shown difference in statistical comparison of contemporary and population of the Middle Ages. It appears more often in the recent population. Conclusion: the similarities between the two samples may be indicative of similar ancestral background of these populations