Post-ex 12: Enamel hypoplasia

Hope this isn't too disturbing; I know some folk are a bit funny about teeth...

Anyway, this phase of post-excavation, the analysis and recording of the in situ skeletons, is getting towards the end. One of the most interesting things, for me, is recording the marks of pathology on the bones. Apart from the things you might expect (old fractures, arthritis) and occasional chronic infections (like TB or syphilis), not many things leave identifiable lesions on the bones; but sometimes the marks of stress in childhood can survive in the enamel of the teeth.
The horizontal troughs in all the teeth here show a time when this individual (a teenager) was ill enough, or perhaps badly nourished enough, that his teeth actually stopped forming in the jaw for a while. The timing of tooth development is pretty constant through the ages, so you can tell that he was about three and a half years old when it happened. Maybe it was a famine year, or he had a disease that gave him a high fever.
These Enamel Hypoplastic lines are fairly rare nowadays; yay for modern medicine!