Une usure dentaire différentielle chez les Néandertaliens ?

Differences in tooth wear are said to be found when comparison is made between anterior and posterior teeth among Neandertaliens. Some researchers have suggested that this queer wear on front teeth might lead to infer that Neandertaliens used their anterior dentition to hold objects while working on them. Others assert that differential wear is the proof of paramasticatory activities which contribute to select and maintain processes operating on Neandertals " muzzle " shaped face. The investigation of presumed relationship between tooth wear and cultural may be important, but a preliminar scientific study of facts has to be done. The use of anterior teeth for paramasticatory activities among Neandertals is supposed to be based on the paper of Hrdlicka (1911). But this author only wrote : (p. 408) : "The teeth in man, as well as in the animals, are, strictly speaking, only natural tools". Since, authors created the paramasticatory hypothèse, repeated it as a fact and now study it as an evidence. To study differential wear on teeth, a specific tool is needing. In this way we propose to test experimentally the dental wear scoring scale created by Molnar. While the levels of degree of wear were formulated in a manner such that each succeeding level represents a more severe expression of dental wear, the differences between levels and among each types of tooth, have to be assumed to be equal in magnitude. Our experimentation shows that the dental wear scoring scale of Molnar is not efficient to describe differential wear of teeth. We propose a new scale allowing to answer if anterior teeth wearing is much heavier than posterior one. Nevertheless, we can not show any distinction between Neandertaliens and anatomically modern humans.L'existence d'une usure plus prononcée des incisives par rapport aux dents jugales sur certains fossiles néandertaliens a été avancée par plusieurs auteurs. Cette existence présumée est à l'origine de l'hypothèse d'une utilisation particulière des dents antérieures chez les Néandertaliens. Or, ce comportement singulier aurait une grande implication culturelle. Pour étudier ce phénomène il convient de définir parfaitement l'usure dentaire. Comme préliminaire à la discussion de l'existence ou non d'une usure dentaire différentielle, il est utile d'élaborer un outil qui permette de la quantifier. Dans ce but nous avons étalonné l'échelle d'usure dentaire de Molnar, très utilisée en anthropologie et en odontologie. Malgré la constitution d'un abaque permettant de quantifier l'usure dentaire différentielle, il n'apparaît pas de distinction entre les Néandertaliens et les hommes modernes du Paléolithique ni avec des populations contemporaines.Zeitoun V., Ambroise D. Une usure dentaire différentielle chez les Néandertaliens ?. In: Paléo, n°7,1995. pp. 13-25