卑南史前人初探──由人骨體質特性分析為例

Dental Studies of the Peinan People

卑南遺址位於臺灣臺東縣卑南山東南端的山麓，乃臺灣東部新石器時代的一個代表性遺址，其年代距今約5300-2300年。此遺址出土的180具人骨，目前典藏於國立臺灣史前文化博物館，其骨質保存甚差，多數個體僅餘牙齒可供觀察，因此本文以牙齒非測量與測量特徵來分析這批人骨。分析成果就前者而言，卑南史前人有拔牙與齲齒的比例偏低，而且若Turner II的牙齒分類系統是成立的，卑南史前人屬於東亞（sinodonty）系統的可能性極高。就後者而言，與其他現代亞洲族群或是臺灣史前人相比時，卑南史前人的上顎正門齒相對較寬而犬齒較窄；同時，除了上顎第一前臼齒與五間厝南史前人、清水中社史前人明顯不同外（上顎犬齒亦因標本個體量太少而排除），卑南史前人與其他遺址出土人骨並未見顯著差異。

Dated to 5300-2300 before present (B.P.), the Peinan site is a representative site of a late Neolithic culture in eastern Taiwan. At least 180 individuals excavated from Peinan are currently preserved in the National Museum of Prehistory, in Taiwan. The preliminary dental analysis in this study, determined 7 females and 4 males according to sex traits and 51 individuals of subadults or younger and 29 adults (older than 35 or approximately 40 years old) based on the dental developments.
The analysis of the 180 individuals relied mainly on the teeth due to poor preservation condition and both nonmetric and metric dental traits were applied. In terms of nonmetric traits, tooth ablation and caries are rarely seen in this set of samples;. Moreover the Peinan prehistoric people could be classified as sinodonty according to the dental classification by Turner II. However, the maxillary central incisors of the Peinan people are wider and the maxillary canine narrower compared with other modern Asian population and prehistoric peoples in Taiwan. In addition, there is significant variations for the width of maxillary 3rd premolar between individuals from the Peinan site and the Wu-Chen-Tsu South site, and between individuals from the Peinan site and the Zhu-Shih site.