A new discovery suggests that neanderthals were performing dental procedures 59,000 years ago.
Some 59,000 years ago, a Neanderthal developed a toothache – and what happened next was, in many ways, astonishing.
This individual figured out the source of their pain and probably sought help to plan an invasive medical intervention. Then they opened wide – no numbing gels or cotton wads to help, just a pointy rock grinding against a throbbing tooth.
This painful prehistoric dentistry saga unfurls from an ancient molar with a circular drill hole, which was discovered in a cave once inhabited by Neanderthals in southwestern Siberia.
In a study published in PLOS One, scientists ruled out other explanations for the hollowed-out hole, pushing back the known history of human dentistry by about 40,000 years.
The discovery is a visceral reminder to anyone who has felt an ache in their jaw of the sophistication of Neanderthal minds and culture. It is the latest in a string of evidence that explodes the myth of our unique cognitive and social abilities – and deepens the mystery of why we are the only species of human left on the planet.
Our close human cousins had diagnostic abilities, they had social and community support to carry out medical procedures – and they must have been able to deploy complex cognitive skills, such as foresight, abstract reasoning and trust.
Andrey Krivoshapkin, an archaeologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said: “It requires a level of reasoning that goes far beyond instinct. It involves what we might call causal thinking: recognising the source of pain, understanding that removing the damaged tissue will stop the infection, and accepting short‑term suffering for a future benefit.
“This is not simply self‑medication like we see in other primates chewing on medicinal plants. It was a deliberate, planned therapeutic act.”
At Chagyrskaya Cave in southwestern Siberia, where the tooth was recovered, the Neanderthals ate a diet heavy on meat, such as bison and horse. Cavities are uncommon in the fossil record before the development of agriculture – cavities are caused by bacteria that feed on sugars – but what was common was incredible wear and tear on the teeth.
The enamel – the hard outer layer of the teeth – often wore off, exposing the softer dentin tissue. What the scientists found in the telltale tooth was evidence that the cavity had progressed so deeply that it had reached the pulp chamber. In addition to the circular pit used to remove the decaying tissue, they found microscopic V-shaped grooves and striations on the surface that suggested a rotating drilling procedure.
John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who was not involved in the study, said the find was very striking.
He said: “The concept of ‘This hurts, and I’m going to work on it, because if I get this out of here it’s going to feel better eventually’. That’s something where you’re going to tolerate quite a lot of intervention in your mouth. We have people who don’t want to go to the dentist today and do this.”
John Ruby, a retired dentist and professor of dentistry, said: “You would have had to have a support group around you, either holding you down or stabilising your head – and they had the wherewithal from these small scrapers, or whatever they were, to go down in where the pulp was infected.”
Despite the persistence in the popular imagination of Neanderthals as brutish, primitive cave people, it has become increasingly clear over the past few decades that the idea of our modern human uniqueness is in many ways a myth.
Neanderthals lived in complex social groups. They buried their dead. They created and used tools. They carved objects with symbolic meaning. They built fires. They interbred with humans.
Krivoshapkin said: “The dental intervention fits perfectly into this picture, it is one more piece of evidence that the cognitive gap between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens is smaller than traditionally assumed."
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