The simple wooden toothpick is among the simplest of all manufactured objects and is considered to be the oldest instrument for cleaning teeth, one that spans more than just human species.
Several higher prime ministers use similar objects to brush or lift their teeth, and growing archaeological evidence from across Europe suggests that it was a Neanderthals custom. also by scraping food out of the mouth. We know that because it is very definitely left on their molars.
A newly examined tooth, found in a Polish cave in 2010, has now been found with a spindle-like groove on the side, showing movement in and out of toothbrush.
Dental measurements at the area’s high premolar and radiocarbon date all indicate that it once belonged to a male Neanderthal in his 30s who brushed teeth in this way as far back as 46,000 years ago.
“The owner of the tooth apparently used oral hygiene. Perhaps between the last two teeth was a food residue that needed to be removed,” archaeologist Wioletta Nowaczewska of Wroclaw University explained in an article for Science in Poland.
“We don’t know where he made a toothpick – a pair of twigs, a piece of bone or a fish bone. It had to be a very solid cylindrical material, which the person would use often enough to leave a clear trace. . “
(Nowaczewska et al., Journal of Human Evolution, 2021)
Above: a) The radial wear pattern on the inside of the prime; b) Tooth bell just visible below the wear area, on the right.
A handful of other teeth have been found in Stajnia Cave near Kraków, which are thought to belong to the Neanderthals. Some even exhibit similar efforts to prehistoric dental hygiene, although their decline makes them more difficult to study.
The remarkable position of this newly studied molar has now allowed scientists to study 2D and 3D of its enamel, which is typically thinner in Neanderthals compared to Homo sapiens.
Further mitochondrial DNA analysis has confirmed that this tooth belonged to Neanderthals, and according to the authors, mechanical scraping appears to have been mainly caused by tooth decay.
The position, shape, direction and how this scratching matches other signs of Neanderthals flying with their teeth elsewhere in Europe.
In 2017, archaeologists announced the discovery of a unique Neanderthal tooth, found in modern-day Croatia, which showed the remains of construction and chiseling from 130,000 years ago – and perhaps as a way to relieve pain.
In 2013, even older Neanderthal teeth, found in Spain today, were rediscovered with similar observations. A piece of wood was even found stuck between two of the molars.
Other materials that Neanderthals may have cleaned their teeth include bone, sinew and grass, although these have not yet been proven in the archaeological record.
According to the famous engineer Henry Petroski, who wrote a book entirely on the toothbrush, this humble instrument is one of the most suitable and ready-made tools in human possession, demanding that parts not be assembled. , without repair, and without instructions for use – or at least, it shouldn’t.
in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it is the very words that finally push the scientist Wonko into a social hermitude of instructions for tooth extraction, which is believed to be the oldest human practice.
As Wonko put it, “no civilization that had hitherto lost its head that had to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a package of toothbrushes, now a civilization in which I could live and stay sane. “
Even Neanderthals, who seem to have been thought to be primitive brutes, seem to have had a common enough awareness and understanding to use the toothbrush – without much guidance at all.
The study was published in the Journal of human evolution.