THE OCCURRENCE AND IMPLICATIONS OF POSTMORTEM PINK TEETH IN FORENSIC AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL CASES

On sectioning six of eight externally well-preserved teeth taken from four skeletons from Medieval Chichester they displayed a superficial s imilarity to teeth described in the forensic literature as 'pink teeth '. This article reviews the occurrence of 'pink teeth' in forensic spe cimens and describes the teeth from Chichester using a variety of anal ytical techniques. We conclude that, despite the similarities, the pin k coloration in the archaeological specimens has a different cause fro m the forensic samples, and that in archaeological contexts the pinkne ss is probably related to post-mortem change brought about by saprophy tic fungi. However, the exact cause of the coloration remains unexplai ned. We discuss briefly the implications of this observation for denta l ageing techniques and other studies of archaeological teeth.