An unusual tooth found in a cave offers a rare glimpse into a surprising procedure prehistoric humans might have performed to fix a cavity 59,000 years ago.Researchers uncovered the lower molar of an adult Neanderthal in Chagryskaya Cave in what’s now Russia, located in southwestern Siberia’s Altai Mountains, a site where populations of these early humans lived between about 49,000 and 70,000 years ago.Dubbed Chagyrskaya 64, the tooth stood out among dozens of others found in the cave because its crown featured a deep, irregular hole that extended all the way into the pulp chamber, or the inner cavity containing nerves and blood vessels. The chasm looked like a painful cavity that took up most of the tooth’s chewing surface.AdvertisementAdvertisementScientists were further intrigued when they spied scratches on the tooth around the hole, suggesting manipulation using a tool of some sort. Fine-pointed stone tools also unearthed in the cave provided possible clues to what made the marks.Multiple scans of the Neanderthal tooth, as well as experiments using tools on modern human teeth, suggest that someone had essentially drilled out the cavity. This evidence points to the earliest known instance of dental cavity intervention in human evolutionary history, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.Such behavior indicates that Neanderthals could identify an infection and craft and select the right tools and techniques to alleviate …
