Supernumerary Teeth in Two Mesoamerican Archaeological Contexts

Supernumerary teeth are uncommon but have been well documented clinically. The majority of cases are isolated anterior teeth; examples of multiple or posterior supernumerary teeth are less common. This paper describes two examples of supernumerary teeth from archaeological contexts in Mesoamerica. The first case is of three individuals with supernumerary posterior teeth found in skull rows and pairs in a Postclassic Maya temple at the site of Ixlú in northern Guatemala. Two of these individuals exhibited bilateral supernumerary mandibular teeth. The second context is a Zapotec burial from the Jalieza site in Oaxaca, Mexico. This individual exhibited a single supernumerary tooth. The paper reviews supernumerary teeth with regard to frequency, ontogeny, and mode of inheritance and discusses the cases’ relevance for biological distance analyses.