Bioarchaeologists examining ancient skeletal collections for this specific pattern might find additional examples that have been previously misidentified or overlooked.

If similar wear patterns are found in specimens from other sites in Southeast Asia, the picture of ancient betel nut use would become substantially broader.

This is one of the ways in which the Sulawesi study’s impact extends beyond the specific findings: by formally establishing and describing a diagnostic marker, it enables searches for that marker in other contexts that might reveal a wider distribution of the practice.

What The Archaeologists Weren’t Looking For