But the dental record also preserved something else: evidence of periodic stress and hardship.

Studies of the Buckeye Knoll population examined linear enamel hypoplasia defects in permanent canine teeth — horizontal grooves or pits in the enamel that form when normal tooth development is interrupted during childhood by illness, nutritional stress, or other physiological disruption.

The findings showed that fifty-nine percent of individuals examined had at least one such defect.

Stress was common.

Hard times visited these populations regularly.

But the populations persisted, adapting to the rhythms of the plateau and the coastal plain, building knowledge of their landscapes that was accumulated across generations.