"Basically a root canal. This [hole] was created by a stone tool handled by a Neanderthal between the thumb and the forefinger. he says. The tool was used to rotate that on the chewing surface of the tooth to expose the pulp and clean it out."
"We think this is an open and shut case. This [hole] was created by a stone tool handled by a Neanderthal between the thumb and the forefinger. The tool was used to rotate that on the chewing surface of the tooth to expose the pulp and clean it out."
"They did a lot of great work and they have beautiful data presented. And she agrees the hole was likely produced by a stone tool, but she can't be sure that it was done intentionally. It's certainly believable. But I'm not sure that the evidence that they provide is necessarily the smoking gun."
"For a rainy month and a half in the summer of 2016, the research team scraped away dirt and rock from the cave floor environment, using scalpels and little knives, while drops of water from the cave ceiling fell on their heads. But working there is usually worth the discomfort. It is the richest collection in this part of the Eurasia."
Excavations at Chagyrskaya Cave in southwestern Siberia have produced Paleolithic tools made from stone and bone and fossils from the easternmost Neanderthal population. A new find from the site is a Neanderthal molar with a depression believed to reflect an invasive dental procedure. Researchers interpret the depression as evidence of a root-canal-like treatment created by a stone tool used to rotate on the tooth’s chewing surface to expose the pulp and clean it out. Independent commentary finds the finding plausible and the data compelling, but notes that the evidence may not definitively prove intentional treatment. The molar was recovered from a cave environment studied through careful scraping and excavation during a rainy period in 2016.
Read at www.npr.org
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