关键词: 牙齿磨耗; 牙齿使用; 人类行为; 更新世晚期; 黄龙洞

Abstract: From 2004 to 2006 three excavations in the Huanglong Cave, Yunxi County, Hubei Province unearthed seven human teeth. In the present study, the tooth wear and tooth use were observed for the seven human teeth. The result indicates that except for the normal tooth wear caused by the tooth contacts, some special tooth use marks were also identified, which include enamel damage and chipping, enamel damage on the labial surface of upper lateral incisor and interproximal grooves in the upper anterior teeth. It's worth noting that all the tooth use marks were found in the anterior teeth regardless of upper and lower teeth. Among them, enamel damage and chippings are mainly found in the regions of crown labial side of upper incisors and crown lingual side all adjacent to incisal edges. With these findings, we guess that the late Pleistocene humans living in the Huanglong Cave used their anterior teeth for gnawing, holding, peeling, or maybe used their anterior teeth as tools. The interproximal grooves in the upper anterior teeth suggest that the humans conducted tooth-picking frequently. The tooth use marks of the Huanglong Cave humans were closely related to the activities of obtaining and processing the meat or ligaments attached in the bones. The Huanglong Cave human's food compositions may contain more meats.

Key words: Tooth wear; Tooth use; Human behaviors; Late Pleistocene; Huanglong Cave