Figure 8.

2 Location on the lower third molar of tooth wear scoring criteria listed in
scheme chart

Diagrammatic representation of the third molar.

(right-side)

Locations relate to scoring scheme developed to age roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) from permanent molariform wear.
First and second molar locations identical apart from hypoconulid.

1. lingual

a a a a
metaconid paraconid
i k f

hypoconulid
a a a a
hypoconid protoconid
j g
l

2. buccal

D M
I E
S S
T p m e o d h c n b I
A A
L L

3. occlusal

Ageing archaeological specimens requires the compilation of modern reference

databases of tooth wear scores from red and roe deer of known-age or -kill date. This
has been done for roe deer (Carter, 1996) and will be used in this analysis. But, despite
numerous enquiries, it was not possible to compile a database for red deer due to a lack
of known-age samples. As a result it has not been possible to estimate the absolute ages
of the Mesolithic red deer and only relative ages have been proposed based on
comparisons of tooth wear scores.

8.3 Age and Sex Estimation from Modern Tooth Wear Scores

168