A. HAOUR AND J.A. PEARSON

AN INSTANCE OF DENTAL MODIFICATION ON A HUMAN
SKELETON FROM NIGER, WEST AFRICA

This note reports the discovery of a pre-Islamic burial from the southern margin of the

Sahara with evidence of dental modification. Its aim is to draw attention to the widespread
occurrence of this phenomenon, and to suggest possible reasons for it which may be of wider
significance.

the site of kufan kanawa

Kufan Kanawa is a now-abandoned walled settlement in the plains of Sahelian Niger,

West Africa (Fig. 1). Investigation of this site is faced with mutually contradictory datasets:
there are no textual records, oral tradition links its abandonment to the foundation of the Hausa
metropolis of Kano 250 km away, and archaeological work has placed its main occupation in
the middle third of the second millennium AD (Haour 2003; Haour and Galpine in press).

background to excavation

During fieldwork in January 2003 a 2 ¥ 3 m test pit was excavated outside the perimeter

of the walled enclosure, in a zone where farmers reported finding cowrie shells, ceramics, human
bone and beads after erosive rains (Fig. 2). This was one of a number of test pits excavated, and
it was felt important to sample areas both within and without the walled enclosure. The
stratigraphic connection between trenches (and with the wall) is, however, still unclear.
Excavation uncovered a set of human remains, 60 cm below the (heavily eroding) present land
surface (Fig. 3). No grave goods or inhumation pit were detected, but a large (29 ¥ 19 cm) stone
above the head is assumed to represent a marker, and the burial can confidently be described as
intentional.

No charcoal was recovered in association with the burial, and bone collagen content

was insufficient (0.4 per cent) for radiocarbon dating and isotope analysis (Michael Richards,
Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, pers. comm.). Analysis of a
sample of sand extracted from the inside of the cranial cavity is under way in order to assess
potential for optically-stimulated luminescence dating.

The position of the deceased – head thrown back, right hand brought under the chin –

suggests a non-Muslim burial. This, together with the fact that the zone of excavation has not
been used as a cemetery within living memory, allows the inference that burial took place over

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100 years ago. This, of course, is a lower limit. The timescale of Islamisation in the region
remains unclear, and oral accounts are contradictory. On the one hand the widely-visited tomb
of a Muslim holy man, some 20 km to the north-east, is assigned an age of 600–700 years, while
on the other some informants place the arrival of Islam in the nineteenth century (Trimingham
1962 and Insoll 2003 discuss this).

physical anthropology

The remains of a cranium, mandible, humeri, femora, tibiae, fibulae and innominate

fragments from this single individual were examined. In each case, the bone was friable and
fragmented. Despite poor preservation, the skeleton appears to belong to a young, possibly
female, adult individual. Age is suggested specifically to be ~25 years following Miles (1963)
and Brothwell (1981).

dental health

Although the dentition is incomplete the material available indicates generally poor

dental health. There are interproximal caries on the mesial and distal faces of the left mandibular

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Figure 1

The location of Kufan Kanawa within West Africa.

first molar combined with the absence of the crown of the same tooth of the opposite side. The
loss of the crown has contributed to uneven wear of the occlusal surfaces of the molars in general
which varies on the Brothwell scale (1981) from ‘2’ indicating enamel wear only, to ‘3+’
indicating islands of secondary dentine on all cusps. Additional interproximal caries where the
tooth row was complete could not be observed as the sediment was essentially holding the teeth
in position and could not be inspected without considerable destruction.

tooth modification

An interproximal groove was identified on the mesial surfaces of both upper central

incisors. This groove is highly polished, has no sharp edges that might be associated with
damage and is related to polishing of the occlusal and labial surfaces of both central incisors.

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Figure 2

Location of burial excavation (CIM1) in relation to Kufan Kanawa walled enclosure.

The polishing is such that pulp exposure has occurred on both crowns. It is unclear as to whether
a chip on the labial aspect of the right upper incisor has occurred ante-mortem or post-mortem.
This note considers the possible aetiology of this aberrant abrasion pattern.

A large body of literature exists regarding interproximal grooving. This is defined as

the presence of a ‘transverse furrow of variable shape worn into the mesial or distal surface of
a tooth at or near the cement-enamel junction’ (Lukacs and Pastor 1988, 378) and seems a
remarkably cross-cultural phenomenon (examples in Lukacs and Pastor 1988 and Brown and
Molnar 1990). In seeking causes for this instance of ante-mortem modification at Kufan Kanawa,
we might first of all – given the highly localised nature of the alteration – rule out factors relating
to the nature of food consumed or to its manner of preparation, as well as therapeutic and
palliative causes (see Larsen 1985; Lukacs and Pastor 1988 for discussion). We remain then
with several possible causes and, following Milner and Larsen (1991), would identify the broad
categories of incidental and intentional alteration. We can rule out intentional cultural
modification for aesthetic purposes. The damage on the Kufan Kanawa skeleton is so discrete
as to be inconsistent with the filing or chipping to remove the mesial corners of incisors, as was
commonly documented amongst pre-colonial West African populations as a sign of group
affiliation (von Jhering 1882; Lignitz 1919–1920; Marshall 1946) and was in fact thought such
a reliable indicator of African culture that its identification in New World burials was argued to
be the marker of recent African immigration (Stewart 1939; Handler et al. 1982).

Implemental and incidental cultural modification remain credible options. Both

categories relate to passive processes; they result respectively from the use of the teeth as a tool
or ‘third hand’, and from habitual culturally-motivated behaviour such as the smoking of pipes
or the wearing of labrets (Lukacs and Pastor 1988; Milner and Larsen 1991; Hillson 1996;
Mower 1999). Culturally-motivated behaviour of the past inhabitants remains difficult to
ascertain archaeologically, since research at Kufan Kanawa is only at its beginning stages, but

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Figure 3

Burial in situ. Trowel points north.

we can make three points here. The smoking of tobacco pipes most probably post-dates AD
1600 in this area (Philips 1983; McIntosh, Gallagher and McIntosh 2003); no labrets/smoking
pipes have been recovered during archaeological excavation at Kufan Kanawa; and, finally, the
dental alteration noted differs markedly from the labret- and pipe-smoking-induced damage
pictured by Milner and Larsen (1991, fig. 8) and Hillson (1996, fig. 11.12). More fruitful in our
discussion of ante-mortem modification, we suggest, is the idea of the use of teeth as tools.
Lukacs and Pastor (1988, 387) remark that ‘While the function of postcanine teeth is primarily
masticator, incisor and canine teeth more frequently serve dual purposes of food processing and
manipulation.’

Documented task-related causes of anterior teeth abrasion include the processing of

fibrous and animal products, the retouching of stone tools, and the operation of a bow drill
(Schulz 1977; Larsen 1985; Lukacs and Pastor 1988; Brown and Molnar 1990). Naturally, other
possible causal agents could be imagined, and multifactorial causation is equally likely. A more
direct association of behavioural activities and abrasion patterns awaits controlled microscopic
studies of different wear patterns; microscopic studies of the striae would enable a determination
of likely agents of abrasion. What is visible with the naked eye is that the modification appears
uneven, with the right side further removed than the left. That the right incisor seemed
differentially worn compared to the left suggests that, if this modification was indeed self-
induced, it was caused by an abrasive object held in the right hand, where the task/objective
was biased towards the right incisor – assuming the individual was right handed – but with the
action/reaction of generating a modification of both central incisors. Also, as the worn area is
not acute, this suggests that the implement used, or the task that occurred, involved a wide rather
than narrow object, which rules out the pulling of cords of plant or animal origin.

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Figure 4

Interproximal groove between maxillary central incisors. © Institute of Archaeology, Ian Cartwright.

In this consideration of an instance of West African dental modification we are, of

course, fully aware of the limitations posed by the fact that our sample is a sample of one. We
acknowledge that we are, perforce, particularistic. A merit of the present case has been that it
deals with skeletal material obtained through well-controlled excavation. Milner and Larsen
(1991) lamented that much skeletal material on which dental modification studies are based was
obtained through poorly documented finds. The potential of dental modification in drawing
cultural conclusions has been well stated by Mower (1999, 37), who wrote that modified teeth
embody ‘complex cultural messages’, while Larsen (1985, 400) saw human dentition as a link
between a specific behaviour and the archaeological record. We should not like to see the
discussion of these phenomena restricted to active, or intentional modification; we hope to have
shown through this short note that implemental causes must not be overlooked.

Acknowledgements

The excavation of the skeletal remains discussed here was conducted by Mr Mahammadou Diori,

whom we wish to thank, in the course of a project directed by Anne Haour. Financial support from the
British Academy (London), and logistical support from the Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines
(Niamey), for this project are gratefully acknowledged. The osteological analysis was undertaken by
Jessica Pearson.

(AH) Institute of Archaeology

36 Beaumont Street

University of Oxford

Oxford OX1 2PG

(JAP) School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology

Hartley Building

Brownlow Street

University of Liverpool

Liverpool L69 3GS

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