Sensational findings emerged from excavations conducted by Siberian researchers. In Chagyrskaya Cave (Chagyrskaya 64), situated within the Altai Mountains, they unearthed a Neanderthal tooth—specifically, a lower left second molar—exhibiting signs of dental work. At its center was a deep cavity that reached the pulp chamber, appearing as though it had been drilled out. Indeed, subsequent research confirmed this suspicion. The studies, headed by Ksenia Kolobova, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, and leading research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IAET SB RAS), details these results in the journal PLoS One.
Chagyrskaya Cave in Altai, where the prehistoric dentist held practice. Photo: archaeology.nsc.ru
Initial doubts that the cavity in the tooth was artificially created—termed “invasive caries treatment” by the scientists—partially subsided after microscopic examination of its inner surface.
“We observed distinct grooves—linear markings characteristic of rotational drilling motion,” reported the publication’s authors. “The cavity itself featured three overlapping depressions, indicating that it was bored in three separate stages.”
According to the researchers, the very act of “treatment” implies that the prehistoric healer understood the source of pain resided specifically within the tooth and that drilling it out would bring relief. The “patient,” in turn, grasped this as well, enduring the pain inflicted by the instrument—a pain likely far worse than the original ailment. In other words, the fellow cave-dweller heeded the explanations offered by the cave’s “dentist.”
The investigators were finally convinced of their theory after Lidiya Zotkina, Candidate of Historical Sciences and a leading research fellow at IAET SB RAS, undertook an experiment. She drilled her own premolar (previously extracted) and two other fossilized teeth using precise replicas of the tools found in the cave.
Lidiya Zotkina, who drilled her own tooth using prehistoric implements. Photo: archaeology.nsc.ru
“Obtaining teeth nowadays isn’t simple,” Lidiya Zotkina shared with KP.RU. “So, I used my own for the initial experiment, which aimed simply to verify the feasibility of drilling teeth with stone tools. Subsequently, we needed teeth closer to the archaeological original. For that, we selected teeth from undocumented Holocene archaeological collections.”
“And as for the tools, yes, we employed experimental instruments crafted from the same raw material as nearly all the tools recovered from Chagyrskaya Cave.”
Firstly, the experimenters succeeded in the operation. Secondly, the exact same grooves found on the excavated, drilled tooth appeared on the teeth they worked on.
The scientists explained that the Neanderthals fashioned their “fine” dental instruments from jasper. However, they didn’t craft them intentionally; rather, they sharpened existing tools. With these sharpened implements, they drilled quite adroitly, employing rotational movements—even more skillfully than “Doctor Zotkina.”
Most importantly, wear marks on the drilled tooth indicated that the patient continued to use it actively. This means the treatment administered nearly 59,000 years ago was successful.
Conspiracy theorists, naturally, suggest that our distant ancestors acquired some useful knowledge from extraterrestrials or individuals representing a more advanced civilization existing in that ancient era.
Siberian scientists, on the other hand, maintain that Neanderthals were intelligent enough in their own right—far more so than they are typically credited for—having figured out dental treatment independently.
I inquired why the “cave dentist” performed such a complex procedure—completely cleaning out the pulp—instead of simply extracting the diseased tooth.
“There likely wasn’t the technical capability for that,” Lidiya Zotkina hypothesized. “But another possibility exists: Neanderthals may have possessed a different cognitive framework than ours. The very notion of extracting a tooth might never have occurred to them, given that teeth are, after all, a very vital part of the human body. However, attempting to repair it and eliminate the source of pain could have been the most logical action in that situation.”
“This discovery once again invalidates the prevailing notion of Neanderthal cultural and anthropological primitiveness when contrasted with anatomically modern humans, such as ourselves,” the scientists stated in their report from IAET SB RAS.
About the Author
