Palaeontology

Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry

Nature volume 440, pages755–756(2006)Cite this article

Flint tips were surprisingly effective for drilling tooth enamel in a prehistoric population.

Abstract

Prehistoric evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo has so far been limited to isolated cases from less than six millennia ago1,2,3. Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7,500–9,000 years ago. These findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in an early farming culture.

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Figure 1: Maxillary left second molar from an adult male (MR3 90) from Neolithic Mehrgarh.

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Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento BAU, Università ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, 00185, Italy
    • A. Coppa
  2. Sezione di Antropologia, Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico ‘L. Pigorini’, Rome, 00144, Italy
    • L. Bondioli
  3. Facultad de Ciencias Antropologicas, Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, 455 LL 41–43 Centro Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
    • A. Cucina
  4. Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 66045-2110, USA
    • D. W. Frayer
  5. Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet, Paris, 75116, France
    • C. Jarrige
    • , J. -F. Jarrige
    •  & G. Quivron
  6. Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá di Bologna, Bologna, 40127, Italy
    • M. Rossi
  7. Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Rome, 00184, Italy
    • M. Vidale
  8. Laboratoire GBPH, UMR 6046, Université de Poitiers, 86022, Poitiers, France
    • R. Macchiarelli
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Correspondence to R. Macchiarelli.

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Coppa, A., Bondioli, L., Cucina, A. et al. Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry. Nature 440, 755–756 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/440755a

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