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Abstract

In modern humans, counts of tooth cementum annulations (TCA) have been widely used to determine adult age at death using classical histology. This destructive technique requires physically thin sectioning the teeth which may not be an option for valuable fossil and subfossil specimens. For over a decade, propagation phase contrast synchrotron X-ray microtomography (SRμCT) at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility has paved the way to non-destructively visualize dental microstructures that remain otherwise invisible to conventional X-ray absorption-based μCT. Here we extend the use of SRμCT to the non-destructive visualization of TCAs in known age archeological modern human teeth, for adult age at death estimation. Our results show that virtual sections are able to elucidate true cementum annulations even if their visibility is often close to the resolution limit of our setup. This is a promising first step in non-destructive adult age at death estimation which future technical fine-tuning will undoubtedly improve further.