Smooth wood chopsticks are among the simplest objects of all manufactured and are considered the oldest instrument for dental cleaning, covering more than human species.
Several higher primates use similar items to brush or pick their teeth, and growing archaeological evidence from all over Europe suggests that Neanderthals also had a habit of taking food out of their mouths. We know this because it has left a strong impression on your molars.
A recently analyzed tooth, discovered in a Polish cave in 2010, has now been found with a groove resembling a side spindle indicating the inward and outward movement of a toothpick.
Dental measurements of the upper premolar and radiocarbon dating of the area suggest that it once belonged to a 30-year-old male Neanderthal who cleaned his teeth in this way 46,000 years ago.
“It appears that the owner of the tooth used oral hygiene. Probably between the last two teeth there was food residue that had to be removed,” explains archaeologist Wioletta Nowaczewska of the University of Wroclaw in an article for Science in Poland.
“We don’t know what a toothpick made of: a piece of twig, a piece of bone or a fish bone. It had to be a fairly rigid cylindrical object, which the individual used often enough to leave a clear trace.”
(Nowaczewska et al., Journal of Human Evolution, 2021)
On top: a) The pattern of radial wear inside the premolar; b) A vertical slot of chopsticks visible under the wear facet, on the right.
A handful of other teeth have been found in Stajnia Cave, near Krakow, and are also believed to belong to Neanderthals. Some of them even show similar attempts at prehistoric dental hygiene, although their deterioration makes them more difficult to study.
The remarkable state of this recently analyzed molar has allowed scientists to perform 2D and 3D analyzes of its enamel, which is generally thinner in Neanderthals compared to homo sapiens.
Further mitochondrial DNA analyzes have confirmed that this tooth probably belonged to a Neanderthal and, according to the authors, the major groove of the tooth was probably caused by mechanical abrasion.
The location, shape, orientation, and appearance of this scratch coincide with other signs of Neanderthals fighting with their teeth elsewhere in Europe.
In 2017, archaeologists announced the discovery of a unique Neanderthal tooth, found in present-day Croatia, that showed chopping and chiseling remains from 130,000 years ago, possibly as a way to relieve pain.
In 2013, even the oldest Neanderthal teeth, unearthed in present-day Spain, were rediscovered with similar impressions. A piece of wood was even found stuck between two of the molars.
Other materials that Neanderthals may have used to clean their teeth include bones, tendons, and grass, although they have not yet been confirmed in the archaeological record.
According to the famous engineer Henry Petroski, who wrote an entire book on chopsticks, this humble instrument is one of the most comfortable and prepared tools that a human being possesses, as it does not need parts to assemble, maintenance or instructions for use them at least, it shouldn’t be.
A la Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the same words that finally push the scientist Wonko towards the social hermitage are indications for the chopstick, which is believed to be the oldest human habit.
As Wonko commented, “any civilization that had hitherto lost its head over having to include a set of detailed instructions for using them in a chopstick package was no longer a civilization in which it could live and maintain. me sa “.
It seems that even Neanderthals, who are supposed to be stereotypically gross primitive, had enough common sense and intuition to use chopsticks, without too much direction.
The study was published in Journal of Human Evolution.