Evidence of prehistoric dentistry has been limited to a few
cases, the most ancient dating back to the Neolithic. Here we report a
6500-year-old human mandible from Slovenia whose left canine crown bears the
traces of a filling with beeswax. The use of different analytical techniques,
including synchrotron radiation computed micro-tomography (micro-CT),
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating, Infrared (IR)
Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), has shown that the exposed
area of dentine resulting from occlusal wear and the upper part of a vertical
crack affecting enamel and dentin tissues were filled with beeswax shortly
before or after the individual's death.
If the filling was done when the person was still alive, the
intervention was likely aimed to relieve tooth sensitivity derived from either
exposed dentine and/or the pain resulting from chewing on a cracked tooth: this
would provide the earliest known direct evidence of therapeutic-palliative
dental filling.
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