Abstract: The tooth wears and some other features related to health status were observed and compared on the remains unearthed from the archaeological sites in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia at the Bronze-Iron ages, and from Henan and Shanxi of Neolithic period. Our results indicate that the average tooth wears are close between the residents of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, and the residents of Henan and Shanxi. Besides, some special patterns of tooth wears appear on the Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia inhabitants. Obvious differences of the caries and antemortem tooth loss were found for the people living in the Chinaps frontier areas and central areas along theYellow Rivers with higher frequencies of carries occurring in the Henan and Shanxi groups, and more antemortem tooth loss in the Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. We also found highly developed exostosis on mandible and maxilla in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia inhabitants.The authors believe that the diets eaten by the people living in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia are different from those consumed by the people about 2000 years later in Henan and Shanxi with more tough food eaten by the former groups.The high occurrence of more heavily wear in frontal teeth and some other special patterns of wear, antemorm tooth loss and exotosis on jaw bones in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia suggest that the people in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia lived in the relatively tough environments, frequently gnawing hard objects, or using teeth as some kind of tools.All these activities made the masticatory organs bear strong loadings.The differences of caries occurred in the frontier and central areas indicate that the food rich in carbohydrate compositions were consumed by the prople living in central areas. The authors propose that in many areas of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia about 3500 ) 2000 years BP, the people mainly relied on the hunter2gatherer economy type with lower proportions of agriculture in their life.

Key words: Tooth; Diets; Archaeology; Physical anthropology; Xinjiang-Inner Mongolia