3D technology reveals diet of medieval children

Biological anthropologists have for the first time used a 3D technology to study the fragile teeth of children who lived between the 11th and 15th centuries, revealing how diet varied among children from poor and wealthy families in medieval England.

The team of international researchers from universities of Kent and Indianapolis used 3D microscopic imaging to safely reconstruct the diet of children who would have lived next door to Canterbury Cathedral when Geoffrey Chaucer, one of the greatest English poets of the middle ages, was writing his famous tales.

The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, involved measuring microscopic changes in the surface topography of the teeth.

According to Dr Patrick Mahoney, a biological anthropologist from Kent, the applications of new technique will pioneer a new era in anthropological studies, opening up the dietary secrets of ancient children and our fossil ancestors.