Comparison within a dental disease (caries) in two historical populations in the Roman southern Spain: Cortijo Nuevo and Cortijo Coracho (3-8th centuries AD)
Two populations excavated in the region of Lucena (Córdoba, Spain) are presented here, in which the presence and frequency of caries has been analyzed in two samples of individuals older than 20 years: a population of Late Roman period, Cortijo Nuevo (3-4th centuries AD), with 9 individuals and 112 dental crowns analyzed; and the Late Antiquity population of Cortijo Coracho (4-8 centuries AD), with 160 individuals and 1681 dental crowns analyzed. It has been possible to determine that there is a tendency towards the appearance of the caries in the posterior teeth of the same ones, mainly in the molars. The analysis performed with the Chi square statistic, in the Cortijo Coracho sample, showed that its presence in the posterior teeth, especially in the molars, is significant. On the other hand, after analyzing various parameters (the frequency of teeth with caries and the Individuals Frequency with caries or IFC), it was possible to determine that the economy of the population of Cortijo Nuevo was based on a mixed diet with non-cariogenic products, where there were abundant non-cereal vegetables and animal proteins from hunting and/or livestock. Similarly, the population of Cortijo Coracho would present an economy based on a cariogenic diet with fermentable, non-protein products, mostly from cereals. These types of diets correspond to the type and frequency of oral lesions caused by caries observed in the samples of teeth analyzed
