Re: Smiling Vinkings

Distribution map , drawings ,and some photographs.

some quotes

''Some of the oldest
cases of deliberate dental modification come from
Mesoamerica, especially Mexico, and can be dated to
1400-1000 BC (Romero, 1958, 1960, 1965). Several
investigations indicate that the phenomenon of
teeth modification had its peak during the period
700-1400 AD. Traces of this custom have been found
in all parts of the world except Europe (Milner and
Larsen, 1991). However, finds of the first three cases
of deliberate dental modifications were found in
1990 in materials from the Viking Age cemeteries at
Fja¨lkinge and Trelleborg in Scania, Sweden (Arcini
et al., 1991). Later, Sjøvold (1991) reported a similar
case from O ¨ land, Sweden. Recently, a single find of
deliberate dental modification was reported from
Denmark (Pia Bennike, personal communication).
These finds of horizontal filing marks on teeth from
Viking Age Sweden and Denmark mean that Europe
is no longer the exception.''


''Similar
marks of horizontal filing, on more or less the same
area of the labial part of the front teeth of
the maxilla, were described in the United States,
in the regions of Illinois, Arizona, and Georgia
(Stewart and Titterington, 1944, 1946; Milner,
1983). They were found on skeletons of Indians from
the Cahokia compound cemetery, in the Lamar culture
site near Macon, Georgia. However, horizontal
filing marks in these materials were found in both
men and women (Stewart and Titterington, 1946)''


And a powerfull conclusion :-)



''CONCLUSIONS
This paper described filed furrows in the anterior
part of the dentition from 22 males, dated to the
Viking Age, in Sweden. It is surmised that these
filed furrows should be considered deliberate dental
modifications. Thus, Europe in general and
Sweden in particular should be added to the global
occurrences of cultural modifications of teeth.''

Milner GR. 1983. The East St. Louis Stone Quarry Site cemetery.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Milner GR, Larsen CS. 1991. Teeth as artifacts of human
behavior: intentional mutilation and accidental modification.
New York: Wiley-Liss. p 357-378.

Romero J. 1958. Mutilaciones dentarias prehispa´nicas de Me´xico
y Ame´rica en general. Ser Invest Inst Nac Antropol Hist Mex
3:1-326.

Romero J. 1960. U ´ ltimos hallazagos de mutilaciones dentarias
en Me´xico. An Inst Nac Antropol Hist Mex 12:151-215.

Romero J. 1965. Recientes adiciones a la coloctio´n de dientes
mutilados. An Inst Nac Antropol Hist Mex 17:199-256.

Sjøvold T. 1991. Importance and certain features of the skeletal
remains from Iron Age graves of O ¨ land. In: Stjernquist B,
editor. Prehistoric graves as a source of information. Kungl.
Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens Konferenser 29.
Stockholm: Almquist &Wiksell International.

Stewart TD, Titterington PF. 1944. Filed Indian teeth from Illinois.
J Washington Acad Sci 34:317-322.

Stewart TD, Titterington PF. 1946. More filed Indian teeth from
the United States. J Washington Acad Sci 36:259-261.

JerryT

.