ETUDES ET ARTICLES / ARTICLES AND STUDIES ANN. ROUM. ANTHROPOL., 55, pp. 45–54, BUCHAREST, 2018 DENTAL MACROWEAR AS MARKER OF DIET: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE SKELETAL SAMPLE FROM THE 17 TH CENTURY NECROPOLIS OF IAŞI (IAŞI COUNTY, ROMANIA) OZANA-MARIA PETRARU 1 , VASILICA-MONICA GROZA 1 , LUMINIŢA BEJENARU 2 Abstract. Dental macrowear is a process of enamel tissue loss on the occlusal surfaces of teeth. The loss of dental tissue in bioarchaeological context is often connected with lifestyles, habits, dietand food preparation techniques. Dental wear increases with age, differ between sexes and by diet. 142 M2 molar teeth with dentine exposure, from a 17 th century necropolis of Iaşi (Iaşi County, Romania), were analysed. The degree of dental wear was evaluated, through ordinal methods (e.g. Scott's method for recording occlusal molar wear), quantitative methods (computer-based image system) and by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique. The percentages of dentine exposure (PDE) recorded on the M2 molars suggest that the macrowear is sex related affecting both male and female individuals during growth but with a different intensity. Males are more affected by the dental wear than females. Micromorphological features inloss of tooth substances (dentine, enamel prisms, dentinal tubules) confirm the dental wear at a microscopic level and suggest the advanced macrowear. Concerning the dental wear as a marker of the paleodiet, further research is required based on micromorphological analysis of the enamel through SEM. Keywords: macrowear, dentine, M2 tooth, 17 th century necropolis. INTRODUCTION Dental macrowear is a process of the overall enamel tissue loss on the occlusal surfaces of teeth and has been used in attempts to characterize diet (Smith 1984; White et al. 2011). Visible at a low magnification (e.g. under a stereomicroscope) or visible to the naked eye (Lucas & Omar 2011), dental macrowear is, unlike 1 Romanian Academy – Iaşi Branch, “Olga Necrasov” Center of Anthropological Research, Str. Th. Codrescu, no. 2 Iaşi, 700481, Romania, doctorand Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Iaşi, ozana.petraru@yahoo.com / ozanapetraru@gmail.com. 2 “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi, Faculty of Biology, Bd. Carol I, 20A, Iaşi, 700505, Romania; corresponding author: lumib@uaic.ro.