Ouch! Neolithic dentistry

[SteveF]

Coppa, A. (2006) Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry.  Nature, 440, 755-756.

Flint tips were surprisingly effective for drilling tooth enamel in a prehistoric population.  Prehistoric evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo has so far been limited to isolated cases from less than six millennia ago1, 2, 3. Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7,500–9,000 years ago. These findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in an early farming culture.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7085/pdf/440755a.pdf

[Daryl Habel]

Steve,

I was a bit disappointed when your URL led only to a form from Nature informing me I could purchase the article for $30.   Nevertheless, the editors summary is available free from Nature at: CLICK HERE
and the first paragraph free at CLICK HERE
and probably all I really need to know about this painful subject, including specific data and photographs, is probably in the supplementary information pdf, which is avalable free in a pdf that can be downloaded from: CLICK HERE

Ouch!!!!
Dar

[Daryl Habel]

And if the free stuff from Nature is not enough for those without access,  John Hawks has a good summary of the paper on his weblog, at: CLICK HERE

All I need,
Dar

Added later today, a few more news story links
From Yahoo:
news.yahoo.com HERE
From CNN (AP), nice photo:
cnn.com HERE
From the New York Times:
CLICK HERE