.
With thanks to David Meadows' Explorator 8.37:
_ What a Viking's smile revealed_
From issue 2533 of New Scientist magazine, 07
January 2006, page 14
VIKING warriors may have filed deep grooves into
their teeth to indicate class or military rank.
Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board
analysed 557 skeletons from four major Viking-age
Swedish cemeteries and discovered that around 10
per cent of men, but none of the women, bore
horizontal grooves across the upper front teeth.
The marks, which were cut deep into the enamel,
are often found in pairs or triplets and appear
precisely made. They might have marked certain
men as members of a group of tradesmen or
warriors, or signified their ability to withstand pain,
says Arcini, who published her findings in the
American Journal of Physical Anthropology (DOI:
10.1002/ajpa.20164). Most of the men bearing the
grooves were young, but in the absence of any
distinctive injuries or artefacts buried with the
skeletons, the exact reason for the marks remains
a mystery.
This is the first known case of tooth filing in Europe,
but it was common practice in the Americas
between AD 800 and 1050. Since the skeletons
date from around the same time, this raises the
possibility that the Vikings picked up the practice
during their travels. Arcini hopes future finds will
reveal where the practice arose and how it spread.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18925335.100
