Project information
Ancient dental calculus as a tool of anthropology and paleogenetics

Ancient dental calculus is a rare and fragile material with a high risk of loss and damage, but by its nature, it is a unique source of information. Therefore, it is essential to adopt an interdisciplinary approach and choose a multiproxy strategy ranging from non-destructive (physical) methods to destructive ones (metagenomics, metaproteomics, etc.). Although dental calculus contains the highest percentage of prokaryotic DNA and proteins, it has also become an unrivalled tool for determining diet. In conjunction with physical methods, it can be used to obtain information about a person's diet, health, disease, migration, and habits, or to learn more directly about the person whose DNA can be extracted from the dental calculus using appropriate DNA probes. The last-mentioned method is used in cases where it is not possible to take a DNA sample directly from the human remains (e.g. ethnic groups who do not wish to manipulate their deceased). In my research, I aim to further develop methodologies for analysing ancient dental calculus to maximize the information obtained from a single sample.