Ancient Dentistry: Neanderthals Were Drilling Teeth 59,000 Years Ago

Neanderthals Were Performing Dental Procedures Long Before Modern Humans

A single ancient tooth discovered in a Siberian cave has rewritten what we know about prehistoric medicine. Researchers have confirmed that Neanderthals were using stone tools to drill into decayed teeth approximately 59,000 years ago — marking the earliest known instance of dental treatment in human history.

The Tooth That Changed Everything

The fossilized lower molar, excavated from Chagyrskaya Cave in southern Siberia — a site already well known for yielding Neanderthal remains and thousands of stone artifacts — displays a precisely bored hole at its center that penetrates deep into the pulp cavity. High-resolution X-ray imaging confirmed severe tooth decay at the site, strongly suggesting the drilling was a deliberate attempt to address a painful dental infection.

Critically, the smoothed edges of the cavity and distinct wear patterns inside it indicate the individual lived on for a considerable period after the procedure, continuing to use the tooth for chewing. This was not a post-mortem phenomenon — it was real-time medical intervention.

Stone Age Tools, Surprisingly Effective Results

To understand how the drilling was carried out, researchers experimented on three modern human teeth. They discovered that manually rotating a narrow, pointed tool crafted from local jasper — held between two fingers — could produce a hole identical in shape and microscopic groove pattern to the one found in the ancient molar.

According to the study, published in the journal PLOS One, penetrating the tooth's dentin using this technique required between 35 and 50 minutes of uninterrupted effort.

"It would have been excruciating," said Dr. Kseniya Kolobova, an archaeologist at the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, who led the research.

A Dental Expert Weighs In

Professor Justin Durham, a specialist in orofacial pain at Newcastle University and chief scientific adviser to the British Dental Association, reviewed images of the tooth independently and offered a candid assessment.

"If I was marking this for a dental student, I wouldn't give it an A, but given the circumstances it's pretty impressive," he said, describing the procedure as "the beginnings of a root canal treatment."

Durham explained that the drilling would have provided meaningful pain relief. When a tooth becomes infected, pressure builds up inside what is essentially a sealed chamber, causing the intense, throbbing pain commonly associated with serious toothache. By boring a hole through the tooth, that pressure is released — offering significant short-term relief.

"We have to use diamond-tipped burrs running at greater than 40,000 revolutions a minute to get through the outer surface of the tooth in modern-day dentistry," Durham noted. "So this is quite a phenomenal achievement. It really does demonstrate high-level thinking and high-level skills."

A Milestone in Neanderthal Intelligence

This discovery marks the first confirmed case of dental drilling performed by a species other than Homo sapiens, and it predates the next oldest known example of such behavior by more than 40,000 years.

Dr. Kolobova emphasized the broader significance of the find: "This discovery powerfully reinforces the now well-supported view that Neanderthals were not the brutish, inferior cousins of outdated stereotypes, but a sophisticated human population with complex cognitive and cultural capacities. It adds an entirely new dimension — invasive medical treatment — to the growing list of advanced Neanderthal behaviors."

Remarkable Willpower Under the Stone Drill

Perhaps equally striking is what the procedure reveals about the patient themselves. Undergoing nearly an hour of agonizing drilling with a stone tool, while already suffering from a severe toothache, demands an extraordinary level of mental fortitude.

Dr. Lydia Zotkina, an archaeologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences and co-author of the study, put it plainly: "What struck me, and continues to strike me, is what an incredibly strong-willed person this Neanderthal must have been. They must have surely understood that although the pain of the procedure was greater than the pain of the inflammation, it was only temporary and had to be endured."

"Now, every time I go to the dentist, I think about that guy," she added.

Building a Picture of Neanderthal Compassion

This is not the first time evidence has emerged suggesting Neanderthals possessed a capacity for care and empathy. Previous archaeological discoveries include the remains of an adult male with a withered arm and bilateral leg deformities, as well as a child with Down's syndrome who survived to at least six years of age — both of whom would have required sustained support from their community.

Taken together, these findings paint a picture of a species far more emotionally and intellectually developed than popular culture has long suggested. The Chagyrskaya molar adds yet another compelling chapter to that story — one drilled painstakingly into existence, 59,000 years ago.