Posted on 09/22/2012 10:12:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Researchers may have uncovered new evidence of ancient dentistry in the form of a 6,500-year-old human jaw bone with a tooth showing traces of beeswax filling, as reported Sep. 19 in the open access journal PLOS ONE.
The researchers, led by Federico Bernardini and Claudio Tuniz of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy in cooperation with Sincrotrone Trieste and other institutions, write that the beeswax was applied around the time of the individual's death, but cannot confirm whether it was shortly before or after. If it was before death, however, they write that it was likely intended to reduce pain and sensitivity from a vertical crack in the enamel and dentin layers of the tooth.
According to Tuniz, the severe wear of the tooth "is probably also due to its use in non-alimentary activities, possibly such as weaving, generally performed by Neolithic females."
Evidence of prehistoric dentistry is sparse, so this new specimen, found in Slovenia near Trieste, may help provide insight into early dental practices.
"This finding is perhaps the most ancient evidence of pre-historic dentistry in Europe and the earliest known direct example of therapeutic-palliative dental filling so far", says Bernardini.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
This is a microphotograph of the tooth crown in occlusal view with indication of the surface covered by beeswax (within the yellow dotted line). [Bernardini F, Tuniz C, Coppa A, Mancini L, Dreossi D, et al. (2012) Beeswax as Dental Filling on a Neolithic Human Tooth. PLoS ONE 7(9): e44904. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044904]
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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I've labored tirelessly on FR and GGG today. On dial-up. And it never interrupted by falling offline. My ass hurts. |
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A bit backwards, don’t you think? Socialist medicine has lines. Fee-for-service will get you in on a Sunday night. Been there and done that after driving from Charlotte Motor Speedway to the Pittsburgh area. I broke a tooth below the gum line after eating a chicken tender ( i thought white slime) on the 50th lap of the Nationwide race.
They obviously didn’t have pliers or they could have employed the same sort of modern medicine the Brits were reduced to under their fine socialist health care regimen...
Bears have dentists!
Or, maybe, the person with the cracked tooth simply ‘chewed’ beeswax into the crack by chowing down on some honeycomb, because their jaw was too sore to chomp seeds or meat; and Jewish penicillin (chicken soup) hadn’t been invented yet.
They died soon after of anaphylactic shock from all the bee stings received while raiding the hive.
;’)
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