Neanderthal Molar Shows Stone-Tool Dental Treatment in Siberia
Researchers say a stone tool removed infected tissue from the tooth, and wear marks show the Neanderthal survived and kept chewing afterward.
- On Wednesday, researchers published a study in PLOS One describing a 59,000-year-old Neanderthal molar from Russia's Chagyrskaya Cave featuring a deep hole believed to be evidence of an invasive dental procedure.
- Archaeologist John Olsen of the University of Arizona described the intervention as "basically a root canal," where a Neanderthal used a small stone tool to rotate against the tooth's surface and clean out severely rotten tissue.
- To confirm their theory, co-author Lydia Zotkina and her team replicated the drilling on modern teeth using jasper tools, discovering "clear linear marks typical of a rotating, drilling motion" that matched the ancient molar.
- This discovery suggests Neanderthals possessed the cognitive flexibility to identify pain and perform complex surgery, predating similar Homo sapiens evidence by more than 40,000 years and challenging old stereotypes.
- Evidence of wear on the cavity walls indicates the patient survived and continued chewing for years, proving the intervention was successful; researcher Andrey Krivoshapkin notes this "goes far beyond the instinctive self medication seen in other primates.
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Would You Want This Guy As Your Dentist?
Around 59,000 years ago, somewhere in the Altai Mountains of southwestern Siberia, in lands prowling with woolly rhinos and cave hyenas, a Neanderthal had a toothache. The tooth was a molar, rooted in the lower left corner of the Neanderthal's mouth, and it had begun to rot. Such a dilemma is diabolically familiar to us modern humans, but at least we are fortunate to have dentists, who inflict upon us mild pain and terror in exchange for lasting…
This is evidenced by a 59,000-year-old molar found in a Russian cave.
A tooth that goes back 59 thousand years has a hole compatible with a primordial dental intervention, but not all are convinced
Neanderthals Performed Dental Treatment 59,000 Years Ago in Siberia
Earliest evidence for invasive mitigation of dental caries by Neanderthals. Credit: Alisa V. Zubova / CC BY 4.0 Neanderthals performed dental treatment far earlier than once believed, according to a new study that examined a damaged molar from a cave in Siberia. The study, led by Alisa V. Zubova and published in PLOS One, suggests Neanderthals may have drilled into a diseased tooth about 59,000 years ago. Researchers say the find could be the ea…
Russian researchers found the oldest evidence known to date of a complex dental intervention. It is a tooth found in the cave Chagyrsskaya in Siberia, which seems to have been treated by a cavity. The discovery indicates that Neanderthals possibly knew the molar pain and knew how to relieve it, indicating that this species had more advanced anatomical knowledge than was thought. Kolobova Kseniya, researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Et…
Neanderthal molar from Siberia points to possible dental treatment 59,000 years ago
A damaged Neanderthal tooth from Siberia may contain the earliest known evidence of dental treatment, according to a study published in *PLOS One*. Researchers examined a lower molar recovered from Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. The tooth, labelled Chagyrskaya 64, belonged to an adult Neanderthal who lived roughly 59,000 years ago. What caught the attention of researchers was a large cavity cut deep into the chewing…
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