North Texas Dentistry Volume 9 Issue 4 2019 ISSUE 4 DE - Page 5

Texas A&M College of Dentistry
Digging His
Discovery
Wang’s work at Chinese
archaeological site yields
elongated skulls
by Kathleen Green Pothier
Dr. Qian Wang’s shared discovery of
shaped skulls in China is evidence of
early head modification.
Dr. Qian Wang, an associate professor
in the Department of Biomedical Sci-
ences, is not only the college’s Teacher of
the Year, but his work at an archaeologi-
cal site in China has led to the discovery
of more than two dozen elongated skulls
dating back between 5,000 and 12,000
years. The findings point to evidence of
skull shaping. Wang, a paleoanthropolo-
gist, has been working at the Houtao-
muga site with Quanchao Zhang, a
bioarchaeologist with Jilin University in
Changchun, China.
“This is the earliest confirmed discovery
of intentional head modification in the
world,” Wang says. “If this practice
began in East Asia, it likely spread west-
ward to the Middle East, Russia and
Europe through the steppes as well as
eastward across the Bering Land Bridge
to the Americas. It may have originated
independently in different places at dif-
ferent times.
“Though the exact meaning of this prac-
tice is still unknown, our evidence sug-
gests that it is most likely related to the
high socioeconomic status of these indi-
viduals or their families. The emergence
of this practice could be a sign of the start
of stratification of the social structure
among pre-modern population or the
beginning of socioeconomic disparity,”
he says.
Wang initiated the Global Record of
Health Project – Asia Module in May
2018. He leads an international team to
systematically document the health,
development and disease status of
human skeletal remains from historic
human populations in the past 10,000
years in Asia. Through this work, they
seek to examine how human health sta-
tus changes over time and varies with
environment, economic mode, climate
change, social disturbances and lifestyle.
Texas A&M College of Dentistry (formerly Baylor
College of Dentistry) in Dallas is a part of Texas
A&M University and Texas A&M Health Science
Center. Founded in 1905, the College of Dentistry
is a nationally recognized center for oral
health sciences education, research, specialized
patient care and continuing dental education.
Learn more at dentistryinsider.tamhsc.edu or
follow @TAMUdental.
Kathleen Green Pothier is communications coor-
dinator at Texas A&M College of Dentistry. She
previously worked at Positively Proofed, where she
wrote and edited content for corporate clients, pub-
lications and motivational speakers. She also was
a writer and editor at The Dallas Morning News,
Houston Post and Beaumont Enterprise. Pothier
has a journalism degree from the University
of Nebraska.
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