Name: The hidden history found in your teeth
Uploaded: 2021-02-12T15:54:50Z
Duration: 10 min 39 s
Description: Your teeth carry secrets: centuries of history about your ancestors, from where they lived to what they ate and where they traveled. Bioarchaeologist Carolyn Freiwald traces the story of human migration across the Americas -- from Mayan royalty and Belizean buccaneers to rural Appalachian farmers -- to illustrate what ancient teeth can reveal about you.

Carolyn Freiwald: The hidden history found in your teeth

The hidden history found in your teeth

Your teeth carry secrets: centuries of history about your ancestors, from where they lived to what they ate and where they traveled. Bioarchaeologist Carolyn Freiwald traces the story of human migration across the Americas -- from Mayan royalty and Belizean buccaneers to rural Appalachian farmers -- to illustrate what ancient teeth can reveal about you.

Teeth preserve extraordinary clues about where people have lived, what they have eaten, and how they moved across the world. Even a single molar or wisdom tooth can show where someone spent their childhood or teenage years, thanks to the minerals locked in tooth enamel. Archaeologists have used these secrets to uncover stories from Maya dynasties, Columbus’s lost settlers, and communities whose written histories are silent. Beneath every smile lies a hidden record of journeys, mingling the personal with the epic sweep of human migration.