Hipodoncia: utilidad de hallazgos dentales en la determinación de patologías y parentesco en poblaciones antiguas. Estudio de dos casos en la necrópolis oriental de Carthago Spartaria

Abstract

The use of forensic techniques when studying partial or badly-conserved human remains is very important when we want to determine age, sex, and race, as well as parental relation between two or more individuals. Of these techniques, some of the simplest but most reliable are those related to the dental studies of the retrieved remains. Finding dental anomalies may give useful information about diseases suffered by the individual (congenital or infecto-contagious) and possible family relation between several individuals. This study describes several cases of dental agenesia (absence of teeth caused by lack of formation of these teeth) found in populations living during the fi fth to seventh centuries (a.D.), retrieved in the oriental necropolis of Carthago Spartaria, in the neighborhood of the present University (Cartagena, Murcia).