The change of human cultures from wild flabby nomads to early arable farmers also had the bacteria of the dental surface evolved. As a team led by Andrea Quagliariello from the University of Padua reports, you can therefore understand the nutritional changes over the past around 30,000 years of human history. For her study published in "Nature Communications", the working group combined bacterial genetic material from fossil tartar of a total of 76 people from central Italy. The results not only show that the transition to agriculture was slow, but also that milk was regularly on the menu in the Neolithic period. In addition, pathogens of dental diseases such as caries are more common over the entire examination period.
Using the bacterial genome extracted from the tartar, the working group identified which microbes played a role in the oral flora. Tiny food fragments also originating from the tartar also provide direct indications of the nutrition of the respective individuals. Archaeological findings such as food traces in ceramics complement the findings. The team led by Quagliariello concludes that the oral microbiomes indicate two transitions in the diet.
While the oral bacteria from the samples of the old stone time ago show a meat -rich diet up to 31,000 years ago and the starch grains found in the tartar come from a wide range of plants, the variety of strength grains decreased significantly in the Neolithic period around 8200 to 6000 years ago. According to the strongest, the roots of pond roses were also on the menu during the Paleolithic period. This fits archaeological evidence that locate the spread of agriculture into this period. In addition, the oral bacteria of the Neolithic Age can metabolize milk sugar - which indicates milk as a regular food component.
However, archaeological finds as well as the bacteria of dental plaque suggest that there was a lot of nutritional continuity between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. The food sources remained diverse, meat played an important role in the diet. The second transition at the end of the Neolithic Age and the beginning of the Copper Age about 6000 years ago, on the other hand, is more drastic. From this time there are indications for a significantly lower protein and richer in vegetable carbohydrates. The shift in the metabolism of oral bacteria is similar to changes observed in vegan people, notes the working group. In addition, in this episode, bacterial groups associated with tooth and gum diseases that we still know today – for example, tooth decay and periodontosis, increase sharply.
