Ancient Tooth With Beeswax Filling May Provide Evidence of Early Human Dentistry

Posted on September 20, 2012

Researchers have found an ancient 6,500-year-old human jaw bone that contains a tooth with traces of a beeswax filling. The jaw was found in Slovenia near Trieste. This filling could be evidence of early human dentistry. The finding was reported here in 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 in their report that the beeswax was applied around the time of the individual's death. However, they cannot confirm whether the beeswax was added shortly before or after the person's death. If it was before death, however, they say it was "likely intended to reduce pain and sensitivity from a vertical crack in the enamel and dentin layers of the tooth."

Bernardini said in a statement, "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."