31 March 2023 The Future is the Product of the Past

Dental Treatments That Surprised Neanderthals

Before the invention of modern dental instruments, people tried to treat teeth using primitive methods. Nobody wants to have a toothache. Ancient people had to make do with the tools they had, and these tools were often made of rocks.

Paleoanthropologist David Frayer of the University of Kansas and his dentist Joe Gatti collaborated on the study of teeth in Neanderthal fossils found in Krabina caves in Croatia. They found evidence that early humans had used primitive hand-made toothpicks to help treat dental problems, such as impacted molars, fractured cusps, and oral pain.

The 130,000-year-old teeth showed grooves, scrapes, and marks that were likely caused by a Neanderthal using sharpened bones or reeds to access the diseased tooth.

“The Neanderthal was presumably trying to treat itself … probing the space between the teeth to get at that twisted molar. Anybody who has ever had an impacted tooth knows what that’s like,” Frayer told the Washington Post.

 Neanderthals were using toothpicks 130.000 years ago.
Neanderthals were using toothpicks 130.000 years ago.

Early humans used stone tools to treat teeth

This practice continued for thousands of years. According to a study published in Iflscience, the researchers analyzed the infected molar tooth with a scanning electron microscope and found chips and lines that they suggested were evidence of “intentional” removal of infected tissue with a small, sharp instrument.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, looked at a molar from a well-preserved 25-year-old male skeleton, the remains of which were first discovered in a rock shelter in Belluno, Italy, in 1988. The researchers found evidence that the molar had infected and partially treated with sharp flint tools.

“The treatment went unnoticed for all these years. The cavity was described as a simple carious lesion,” lead researcher Stefano Benazzi from the University of Bologna told Discovery News.

The ancient tooth represents “the oldest archaeological evidence of” dentistry, the study notes.

A 14,000-year-old tooth infected with this study provided us with the earliest known evidence of dentistry. Instead of sterile instruments and anesthesia, our ancestors used sharpened stone tools to remove their cavities. So, thank you next time you visit the dentist, you do not have to go through the harsh and basic dental practices of the Paleolithic period.

Banner
Related Post

The Oldest Known Map of Europe, “Saint-Bélec Slab”

6 April 2021

6 April 2021

An ornate Bronze Age stone slab (Saint-Bélec slab) that was excavated in France in 1900 and forgotten about for over...

Al-Ula, The Living Museum of Ancient Arab Civilizations

12 February 2021

12 February 2021

Al-Ula oasis is located in the lush Wadi Al-Qura, or “valley of villages”, about 110 km southwest of the modern...

5,700-Year-old Ancient “Chewing Gum” Gives Information About People and Bacteria of the Past

4 April 2021

4 April 2021

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have successfully extracted the complete human genome from “chewing gum” thousands of years ago....

World’s First Air Conditioners “Windcatchers”

23 May 2021

23 May 2021

The Persians invented Air Conditioning! Although it should be noted that this is 500 CE, this is the first time...

People knew how to make bread 14,400 years ago

15 May 2022

15 May 2022

Archaeological finds in Jordan’s Black Desert show that humans used stone ovens to bake bread 14,400 years ago. Researchers have...

The world’s earliest drawing of a ghost discovered in the British Museum vault

17 October 2021

17 October 2021

The world’s earliest drawing of a ghost has been unearthed in the gloomy vaults of the British Museum. The British...

World’s Oldest Settlement Plan Found in “Çatalhöyük”

15 February 2021

15 February 2021

With the beginning of the Holocene period, many lakes have dried up and have become suitable for settlement. It is...

The mystery of Cathedral of Salamanca’s astronaut figure, isn’t what people think it is

10 March 2022

10 March 2022

There is a photograph of an “astronaut” carved in a 16th century Spanish cathedral in Salamanca. Known as the Catedral...

From Prehistoric Georgia ‘World’s oldest wine”

12 July 2022

12 July 2022

For many years in a row, wine has been a popular alcoholic beverage consumed worldwide. While we associate many things...

The Historical Building Next To The Million Stone Will Sell

6 February 2021

6 February 2021

Everyone has heard of the Million Stone, which was built during the Byzantine Empire and accepted as the zero points...

“Dholavira,” the settlement with the world’s oldest signboard

16 August 2021

16 August 2021

Dholavira, also known as Kotda (which means “big fort”), is one of the islands in Kutch’s vast desert. The city...

New Dead Sea Scrolls in The Horror Cave

16 March 2021

16 March 2021

On Tuesday, Israeli archaeologists revealed dozens of recently discovered fragments of Bible text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were based...

Jade Burial Suits of the Han Dynasty

12 September 2021

12 September 2021

Threaded hand-crafted from thousands of precious stone slabs with silver and gold during the Han Dynasty about 2000 years ago,...

In China, 2700-Year-Old Face Cream Made from Moon Milk for Men was Found

14 February 2021

14 February 2021

At a Chinese excavation site with Chinese and German researchers, evidence of a 2,700-year-old male facial cream was found. In...

Mysterious Archaeological find in Flanders Revealed to be Hernia Truss

24 May 2021

24 May 2021

The hernia truss found during the Hopmarkt excavations in Aalst, in the Belgian state of East Flanders, was a surprise...

Comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *