A ~59,000-year-old Neanderthal molar from a North Asian cave shows a hole drilled into the pulp cavity, with X-rays revealing severe decay. A jasper tool rotated by hand could replicate the hole in 35-50 minutes. The oldest known dental drilling, predating other examples by 40,000+ years.
Neanderthals performed dental drilling 59,000 years ago in North Asian cave
RussiaBioarchaeologyBreakthrough
Site mentioned
Key facts
- Cave in North Asia contains over 70 Neanderthal fossils and 26 dental specimens
- A lower second molar dated to ~59,000 years ago shows a deep hole extending into the pulp cavity
- Microscopic X-ray imaging revealed mineralization changes indicating severe tooth decay
- Experiments on modern human teeth showed a hole of the same shape could be drilled manually using a jasper tool rotated between two fingers, taking 35-50 minutes
- First dental drilling demonstrated outside Homo sapiens and the oldest example of this behavior by more than 40,000 years
- Individual survived for some time after the procedure, as shown by further wear on the tooth
- The procedure is described by modern dentists as the beginnings of a root canal
Sources
Oldest known dental treatment found in 59000-year-old Neanderthal ...archaeologymag.com
Researchers studying a molar from Chagyrskaya Cave in Russia found signs of deliberate drilling inside a painful cavity, suggesting ...
Tooth from Siberian cave reveals Neanderthal dental surgery | Reutersreuters.com
About 59000 years ago, a Neanderthal suffered from an awful toothache caused by a deep cavity in one of the molars on the lower jaw.
Chagyrskaya - An individual buried in Russia in the Pleistocene eradnagenics.com
Lineage: The DNA evidence suggests that the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals are more closely related to European Neanderthals than to those from the nearby Denisova ...
Dietary evidence from Central Asian Neanderthals: A combined ...sciencedirect.com
New archaeological and genetic data suggest that in Chagyrskaya Cave, there is evidence of a second Neanderthal dispersal into the Altai, at about 60 ka BP.
Neanderthals may have drilled out a cavity 59,000 years agowkyufm.org
Several views of the molar tooth archeologists discovered in Chagyrskaya Cave. ... Cavities were rare among Neanderthals, but the scientists ...
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.