The environment clearly has a huge impact on human health both now and in the past. A knowledge of the effects of environmental conditions, and change, on the health of early historic communities in Scotland and Ireland has the potential to inform critical components of modern human health in the region, including oral health. The project will be the first to undertake a largescale proteomics analysis of samples of dental calculus from both Irish and Scottish Medieval skeletal populations. The process whereby dental plaque builds up on the surface of a tooth and becomes calcified (calculus) results in the entombment and preservation of biomolecules connected to both the oral microbiota and the individual. Additionally, inhaled and/or ingested microparticles may be related to the environment, human behaviour and foodstuffs. The presence of dietary particles on the teeth can provide direct evidence of the nature of foods consumed, which can complement more generalised measures of past diet, including dental palaeopathology, stable isotope analyses, zooarchaeology and analysis of plant remains. The preserved proteins are robust and highly diagnostic and different parts of plants (e.g. seeds versus leaves) and animals (e.g. muscle versus milk) can be identified.
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