Maier et al. 2017.5 39 Dental Anthropology 2017 │ Volume 30 │ Issue 01 In bioarchaeology, little attention has been paid to the Indian subcontinent, especially compared to the volume of work on Native Americans and Eu- ropeans. Holocene Foragers of North India: The Bioar- chaeology of Mesolithic Damdama contributes to the scholarship relating to the Mesolithic Lake Culture (MLC) of Northern India and helps expand the corpus of bioarchaeological work in India. Lukacs and Pal explore the life of the residents of Damdama through a comprehensive analysis of human remains. The site of Damdama, discovered in 1978, constitutes the third major Mesolithic site in the region to yield a high number of artifacts in association with human remains. To an extent, the bioarchaeology of South Asia has been limited by the poor preservation of human remains, resulting in a focus on the individual rather than the popula- tion. However, the Damdama assemblage exhibits uncharacteristically good preservation, allowing Lukacs and Pal to address population-driven ques- tions. Additionally, the position of Lukacs as an author makes this volume unique among studies of Mesolithic Lake Culture peoples, as he studied the other two major MLC sites (Sahar Nahar Rai and Mahadaha). This volume involves compari- sons among the three sites so potential interobserv- er biases are minimized. Intersite comparisons allow for a discussion of the place of Damdama among MLC peoples, and puts the Indian MLC in a larger global context. This assemblage is com- prised of 46 well-preserved individuals, allowing researchers to evaluate variables relating to diet, health, stress, activity levels, and the genetic char- acteristics of the residents of Mesolithic Damdama. To that end, chapters 9-11 focus on the wealth of information derived from the dentition. Chapter 9 focuses on the dental inventory of the assemblage and provides information on the prevalence and degree of tooth wear. The dental inventory is an easily overlooked component of an analysis, but the authors emphasize that understanding sample composition is necessary to recognize potential limitations and biases of subsequent analyses. Dental wear was scored using the quadrant system of E. Scott (1979) and the Eight Grade System of Langsjoen (1998). Each system is discussed, high- lighting its advantages and disadvantages, and noting the appropriate circumstances for imple- mentation. Ultimately, the combination of dental wear scores, and derived variables led the authors to conclude that the inhabitants of Damdama, like other MLC peoples, consumed a coarse diet and were subject to heavy masticatory stresses. The pattern of dental wear in the Damdama sample was additionally used to support the con- clusion that this population subsisted using a hunt- ing-foraging strategy. The authors present a unique use of the quadrant wear system (Scott 1979) to assess the angle of molar wear as pro- posed by Smith (1984). Smith (1984) asserts that hunter-foragers tend to demonstrate a flatter molar wear plane, while agricultural populations show steeper planes of molar wear. To evaluate molar wear angle, Lukacs and Pal suggest wear scores of the lingual cusps can be compared to the buccal cusps – the greater the difference in wear scores, the more steeply angled the molar wear plane. The authors recognize this analysis may not be precise enough to capture subtle angle differences, but the combination of these two classic dental wear tech- niques is intriguing and represents an exciting new possibility for future dental anthropological stud- ies. The focus of chapter 10, dental pathology, in- cludes the prevalence of oral lesions and interpre- tations of their significance. The study of dental pathology is critical to any comprehensive bioar- chaeological research project as it provides a snap- shot of the diet and dietary behavior of past popu- lations. In this chapter, the broad category of den- tal pathology includes developmental anomalies, infectious diseases, and degenerative conditions. We commend the authors on their explicit defini- tions of pathological conditions to ensure clarity to the reader and replicability in future research. Dental pathology is explored in several contexts. First, frequencies of a given condition are present- ed by individual and by sex to discern patterns within these divisions. Next, the rates of patholog- ic manifestations are compared between Damdama and other hunter-forager and agriculturist groups to explore the effects of subsistence on pathology. After a discussion of the prevalence of enamel hy- poplasia, the chapter concludes with an interpreta- tion of the suite of conditions observed in the Damdama sample. In total, the profile of the resi- dents of Damdama derived from an analysis of dental pathology is consistent with a hunter- forager population with a diet of coarsely textured BOOK REVIEW Holocene Foragers of North India: The Bioar- chaeology of Mesolithic Damdama. By John R. Lukacs and Jagannath Pal, with contribu- tions by M.C. Gupta, V.D. Misra, Greg C. Nelson, and G. Robbins Schlug. Published in Oxford by British Archaeological Re- ports Ltd, 2016. pp. 328. ISBN: 978-1-4073- 1452-5, price £49.00, or A$63.15 40 Dental Anthropology 2017 │ Volume 30 │ Issue 01 food. Rates of caries and periapical lesions are re- markably low, and rates of antemortem tooth loss are moderate on a world scale. Enamel hypo- plasias are common in this population, suggesting periods of childhood stress; however, post-cranial analyses of adult stature suggest these childhood stress episodes were not severe. The final chapter (11) focuses on the morpholo- gy and metrics of the Damdama dentition. These data are used to explore the functional aspects of tooth size and morphology, as well as their utility in assessing population affinity. The sample avail- able for the study of morphology was too small to be statistically robust; therefore, for discussions of morphology, the Damdama individuals were grouped into a larger Mesolithic Lake Culture group. The dental morphology of the MLC popu- lation is best described as simple. Although incisor shoveling occurs with moderate frequency, few other mass-additive features were observed. Bio- distance analyses based on dental morphology align the collective Mesolithic Lake Culture people with the generalized Sundadont (Turner 1990) and Indodont (Hawkey 1998) dental patterns. Further- more, these analyses reveal previously unidenti- fied linkages between the peoples of the MLC and extant tribes. The analysis of tooth size is also re- vealing. The trend in tooth size at Damdama is toward larger dentitions, exhibiting some of the largest teeth in all of South Asia. The authors offer increased tooth size as support of a hunter-forager subsistence pattern in the MLC. Taken together, the results of morphological and metric analyses of the Damdama teeth are consistent with inferences of diet and subsistence derived from tooth wear and dental pathology. Lukacs and Pal are to be commended for their comprehensive examination of the bioarchaeology of the Damdama site in northern India, particularly the thorough treatment of the dentition. This work represents the full-complement of a dental anthro- pologist’s contribution to the bioarchaeological literature. Their focus on population-driven ques- tions and quantitative methods represents the fu- ture of bioarchaeological research. The acknowl- edgment by these authors of potential biases and limitations throughout their research strengthens the final product. Knowledge of potential prob- lems helps the reader temper any conclusions drawn from this work. The authors set three goals for the volume: 1) to elucidate the utility of bioar- chaeology in understanding prehistoric human behavior, 2) to explore the place of Mesolithic hunter-foragers in the regional archaeological se- quence, and 3) to approach the bioarchaeological data in an integrative and synthetic way in re- searching the MLC of North India. They achieve all three goals. This volume represents an excep- tional standard for bioarchaeological work and shows how the dentition informs bioarchaeological questions and provides direction of future research in South Asia. CHRISTOPHER A. MAIER1, Ph.D.; KELLY N. HEIM2, M.A.; and G. RICHARD SCOTT2 , Ph.D. 1ECKERD COLLEGE 2 UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO LITERATURE CITED Hawkey DE. (1998). Out of Asia: Dental Evidence for Affinities and Microevolution of Early Popu- lations from India/Sri Lanka. PhD Dissertation. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. Langsjoen O. (1998). Dental pathology. In: Aufder- heide AC and Rodríguez-Martin C, (eds). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 393-412. Scott EC. (1979). Dental wear scoring technique. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 51, 213- 218. Smith BH. (1984). Patterns of molar wear in hunter- gatherers and agriculturalists. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 63, 39-56. Turner CG II. (1990). Major features of Sundadonty and Sinodonty, including suggestions about East -Asian microevolution, population history, and Late Pleistocene relationships with Australian Aboriginals. American Journal of Physical Anthro- pology, 82, 295-317.