400,000-year old tartar on teeth gives clues on what ancient people ate

Unbelievable that we can tell what kinds of foods people eat just by examining the tartar on their teeth, no? Even more unbelievable is that we can determine this from jawbones that are 400,000 years old! While there are quite a few research teams out there who examine tartar on ancient skulls, a particular group from Tel Aviv University was the first to determine the presence of pollutants, like smoke from a cooking fire, embedded into the tartar of well-preserved skeletons found in a cave in Tel Aviv. From their studies, they were also able to assess that these cave dwellers not only ate meat, but also possibly nuts and grains, based on the starch and fatty acid deposits found on ther teeth. Thousands and thousands of years from now, if someone were to unearth you and examine your teeth, what will your tartar deposits say about you? (Hopefully, nothing, since you follow good oral hygiene habits and you won't have any, am I right??) :)

Read the article here.

Image Credit: Israel Hershkovitz, Tel Aviv University