TIGARAN (POINT-HOPE, ALASKA) TOOTH DRILLING

In a sample of 48 adult Tigarans (1300-1700 A.D.) from Point Hope, Ala ska, 33 exhibited various degrees of periodontal disease, which, in 25 , resulted in tooth loss (Schwartz, unpublished data). Although extrem e examples of tooth wear were prevalent in the sample, carious infecti on was noted in only one individual, in whom the lower central incisor s (I(1)s) had been affected. In the left I-1, infection had spread thr ough the root's apex into the alveolar bone, causing an abscess. The b uccal (labial) side of the root of this tooth, just below the crown, b ears a shallow, relatively flat-bottomed depression, with a small perf oration into, as well as a second hole that fully penetrates, the root canal. Both of these features appear to have been produced by an impl ement, and, as they are associated with a diseased tooth, and ritualis tic tooth shaping or drilling of any sort was, and is, not practiced a mong Arctic groups, their purpose was probably therapeutic. As such, t his specimen appears to represent a case of precontact New World Arcti c dentistry. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.