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Beeswax as Dental Filling on a Neolithic Human Tooth

by Turco, Gianluca , Coppa, Alfredo , Mancini, Lucia , Dreossi, Diego , Bernardini, Federico , Tuniz, Claudio , Terrasi, Filippo , Levchenko, Vladimir , De Cesare, Nicola , Eichert, Diane , Hua, Quan , Biasotto, Matteo

in Archaeology / Beeswax / Canine teeth / Chewing / Computed tomography / Crack propagation / Dating / Dating techniques / Dental enamel / Dental fillings / Dental Restoration, Permanent - methods / Dentin / Dentistry / Egyptian civilization / Electron microscopy / Enamel / Fractures / History / Humans / Infrared spectroscopy / Laboratories / Male / Mandible / Mass Spectrometry / Mass spectroscopy / Mastication / Medicine / Microtomography / Neolithic / Neolithic period / Pain / Prehistoric era / Radiation / Radiocarbon dating / Radiometric Dating / Salam, Abdus / Scanning electron microscopy / Science / Scientific imaging / Slovenia / Social and Behavioral Sciences / Spectrophotometry, Infrared / Spectroscopy / Stone Age / Synchrotron radiation / Teeth / Theoretical physics / Tissues / Tooth / Trauma / Waxes / Waxes - chemistry

2012

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Beeswax as Dental Filling on a Neolithic Human Tooth

2012

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2012

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Journal Article

Beeswax as Dental Filling on a Neolithic Human Tooth

Turco, Gianluca,

Coppa, Alfredo,

Mancini, Lucia,

Dreossi, Diego,

Bernardini, Federico,

Tuniz, Claudio,

Terrasi, Filippo,

Levchenko, Vladimir,

De Cesare, Nicola,

Eichert, Diane,

Hua, Quan,

Biasotto, Matteo

2012

Overview

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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Publisher

Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Subject

Archaeology

/ Beeswax

/ Canine teeth

/ Chewing

/ Computed tomography

/ Crack propagation

/ Dating