What Did Ancient Humans Do When Their Tooth Hurt?

How Did Ancient Humans Deal With a Toothache? All research and sources are linked below. 📚 RESEARCH & SOURCES: ▸ The oldest drilled teeth — "Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry" Coppa A., Bondioli L., Cucina A., Frayer D.W., Jarrige C., Jarrige J-F., Quivron G., Rossi M., Vidale M., Macchiarelli R. (2006, Nature 440, 755–756) https://doi.org/10.1038/440755a — eleven drilled molar crowns in nine adults from Neolithic Mehrgarh, Pakistan. ▸ A Neanderthal with a toothache — "Neanderthal behaviour, diet, and disease inferred from ancient DNA in dental calculus" Weyrich L.S. et al. (2017, Nature 544, 357–361) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21674 — a dental abscess, poplar (salicylic acid) and Penicillium in the plaque of an El Sidrón Neanderthal, interpreted as possible self-medication. ▸ The age of El Sidrón — "A new date for the Neanderthals from El Sidrón cave (Asturias, northern Spain)" (2013), summary: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases... — the Neanderthal remains are about 49,000 years old. ▸ A beeswax filling — "Beeswax as dental filling on a Neolithic human tooth" Bernardini F., Tuniz C., Coppa A. et al. (2012, PLoS ONE 7(9): e44904) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.... — the Lonche jaw from Slovenia, about 6,500 years old, with beeswax in a cracked canine. Note: the researchers could not tell whether the wax was applied shortly before the person's death or shortly after it. ▸ Cavities before farming — "Earliest evidence for caries and exploitation of starchy plant foods in Pleistocene hunter-gatherers from Morocco" Humphrey L.T. et al. (2014, PNAS 111, 954–959) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1318176111 — caries in 51.2% of adult teeth at Taforalt, Morocco; acorns and pine nuts as staple foods. ▸ Farming and the mouth's bacteria — "Sequencing ancient calcified dental plaque shows changes in oral microbiota with dietary shifts of the Neolithic and Industrial revolutions" Adler C.J. et al. (2013, Nature Genetics 45, 450–455) https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2536 — farming shifted oral bacteria toward a disease-associated mix; cariogenic bacteria became dominant during the Industrial Revolution. ———————————————————— PEOPLE & SITES MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ▸ Mehrgarh (Balochistan, Pakistan) — a Neolithic farming settlement where researchers found molars with neat drilled holes dated to roughly 7,500–9,000 years ago. ▸ Andrea Coppa and Roberto Macchiarelli — anthropologists in the international team that described the Mehrgarh drilled teeth in Nature in 2006. ▸ El Sidrón Cave (Asturias, Spain) — a cave with the remains of a Neanderthal group, dated to about 49,000 years ago. ▸ Laura Weyrich — lead author of the 2017 study that read ancient DNA in Neanderthal dental plaque. ▸ Lonche (Slovenia) and Federico Bernardini — the cave where the 6,500-year-old jaw with a beeswax-filled tooth was found, and the lead author who analyzed it. ▸ Taforalt, Morocco (Grotte des Pigeons) and Louise Humphrey — a hunter-gatherer site about 15,000 years old with unusually high rates of tooth decay, and the lead author of the study. ▸ Christina Adler and Alan Cooper — researchers behind the 2013 study of how farming and industrial food changed the bacteria in our mouths. ———————————————————— #ancienthumans #prehistory #stoneage #anthropology #archaeology #history #explainer #neanderthal #neolithic #dentalhistory #humanevolution #paleoanthropology #huntergatherers #historyexplained #ancientpeople #science #dentistry #howancientpeoplelived