Posted on 02/04/2025 9:00:44 AM PST by Red Badger
Strange wear marks on the teeth of Paleolithic people in Central Europe have long puzzled scientists, but new research may finally reveal the cause.
Close up of Pavlovian teeth remains, and potential position of cheek piercings. © John C. Willman Numerous human remains discovered in central Europe dating to the last Ice Age have unusual abrasions on their teeth that have stumped experts for decades. Now, a researcher in Portugal has put forth an interesting explanation: cheek piercings.
John C. Willman of the Laboratory of Prehistory (CIAS) at the University of Coimbra has suggested that Pavlovian people—a hunter-gatherer culture that existed in central Europe between approximately 25,000 and 29,000 years ago—sported labrets—a kind of cheek piercing. In a study published January 23 in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, the biological anthropologist argues that labrets could have caused the unusual dental wear previously noted in many Pavlovian remains with well-preserved teeth.
“While working on my Ph.D. thesis, I was fascinated by the strange wear on the surfaces of the canines and cheek teeth of individuals from Pavlovian sites. In addition to normal wear on the chewing surface of teeth, they have flat wear planes on their ‘buccal’ (cheek) surfaces,” Willman explained in a blog post. Buccal or cheek surfaces are the sides of teeth that face the inside of the cheek. “The enamel wear on cheek surfaces struck me as very similar to the wear caused by labrets and other facial piercings that are found in some bioarchaeological, ethnographic, and clinical cases.”
Previous studies have theorized various explanations, including that Pavlovian people may have kept small pebbles in their mouths to trigger salivation and relieve thirst. Though Willman wasn’t the first to propose the cheek piercing hypothesis, he conducted new analyses of original tooth remains and photos of remains that he could not observe firsthand.
He concluded that “labrets, rather than any other kind of behavior, were a likely cause [of] the flat buccal surfaces in the Pavlovian individuals I studied.” He also noted that, in addition to surface wear, the piercing could have affected tooth arrangement over time—“basically the opposite of what happens if you wear braces or retainer to straighten your own teeth.”
Because researchers have identified the dental abrasions in the well-preserved teeth of most Pavlovian adults and adolescents, and even in children as young as six to ten years old, Willman suggests that it could be the result of a shared practice related to advancing age, akin to a rite of passage.
“Children/adolescents probably received a labret on one side of the face early in life and adults generally exhibited evidence for labrets on both sides of the face,” he explained.
One limit to the cheek piercing theory, however, is the fact that labrets have thus far not been identified at any Pavlovian burial. Nonetheless, Willman argues that labrets made of wood or leather may have disintegrated in time, or that perhaps Pavlovian people did not bury their dead with the piercings.
“Whether or not the labret hypothesis finds support through future research and discoveries, the buccal facets represent a physical manifestation of widespread Pavlovian behavior(s) marking lived experience,” he pointed out in the study.
If you thought cheek piercings were a modern trend—think again!
Even the Bible mentions Body Piercings, nose rings and pierced ears..................
These were the ones who complained that they needed a minimum wage of five pounds of mammoth meat a day to survive.
True that. Of course, the earliest I can think of in the Bible is Isaac's servant winning over Isaac's wife with a nose ring LOL. That would be about 4,000 years ago.
This is about 29K years ago. So, looking at one of the three warming and cooling cycles we talk about on FR (in this case we're talking about the glacial cycles), this would be near the far right below about halfway between "Today" and the dash that represents 50K years ago.
Thanks Red Badger. Goths. It started longer ago than we thought. :^)
Bridling for slaves. Not found in burials cuz slaves were used for food (dogs, other slaves, etc). Only some elites were buried.
For there not being any dentists around then their teeth looked pretty good. Could it be they didn’t consume any sugar then?
No sugar, maybe?
If I go back to the Neolithic I think I’ll bring some cany along in the time machine. And maybe some firewater too.
They had “Spring Surprise” all the way back then?
Crunchy Frog I can understand, but the technology involved in Spring Surprise may have been beyond them.
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