Title |
Beeswax as Dental Filling on a Neolithic Human Tooth
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, September 2012
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0044904 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Federico Bernardini, Claudio Tuniz, Alfredo Coppa, Lucia Mancini, Diego Dreossi, Diane Eichert, Gianluca Turco, Matteo Biasotto, Filippo Terrasi, Nicola De Cesare, Quan Hua, Vladimir Levchenko |
Abstract |
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. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 13 | 18% |
United Kingdom | 7 | 10% |
Switzerland | 4 | 6% |
Slovenia | 3 | 4% |
Australia | 2 | 3% |
Canada | 2 | 3% |
Finland | 1 | 1% |
China | 1 | 1% |
Spain | 1 | 1% |
Other | 6 | 8% |
Unknown | 31 | 44% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 51 | 72% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 16 | 23% |
Scientists | 2 | 3% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 2 | 3% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 3 | 2% |
United States | 1 | <1% |
Luxembourg | 1 | <1% |
Australia | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 146 | 96% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 22 | 14% |
Researcher | 22 | 14% |
Student > Master | 18 | 12% |
Other | 14 | 9% |
Student > Bachelor | 10 | 7% |
Other | 25 | 16% |
Unknown | 41 | 27% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Medicine and Dentistry | 21 | 14% |
Arts and Humanities | 18 | 12% |
Chemistry | 12 | 8% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 11 | 7% |
Engineering | 10 | 7% |
Other | 30 | 20% |
Unknown | 50 | 33% |