Preliminary odontometric study on a sample of human second molars of 16th -19th centuries, from the city of Iași (Romania)

Owing to their excellent postmortem preservation, teeth are particularly important in archeological and forensic contexts. Teeth have been studied in several bioarchaeological research areas including crown morphology and size. Although odontometrics received attention in the last decades, there are few studies regarding tooth crown dimensional variability in past human populations from Romania. This study refers to the metric variability assessment of the second molar (M2) crown belonging to human skeletons of 16th -19th centuries discovered during archaeological excavations in the city of Iași (Romania). Variables such as buccolingual (BL) and mesiodistal (MD) diameters, crown index (CI), crown area (CA), and sexual dimorphism index (SDI) were subjected to univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. The results show that the maxillary second molar (M2) in male has the higher variability for the both BL and MD diameters. No significant differences were obtained between male and female series in four variables (i.e., BL, MD, CI, CA). The discriminant analysis highlighted new aspects regarding the implication of the CA and CI variables in the discriminant functions of the sexual dimorphism, although not statistically supported. This study represents a new contribution to the knowledge of dental variability in medieval and premodern human populations from Iași city.