Medicine & Surgery
Prehistoric dentistry (drilled teeth)
c. 7000-5500 BCEMehrgarh craftspeopleMehrgarh archaeological siteIndus / NW (now Pakistan/Afghanistan)
7,000 BCE
Molar teeth were drilled with flint tools, the earliest known evidence of dentistry.
- Dated
- 7,000–5,500 BCE
- As scholars put it
- c. 7000-5500 BCE
- Originator
- Mehrgarh craftspeople
- Source text
- Mehrgarh archaeological site
- Region
- Indus / NW (now Pakistan/Afghanistan)
- Discipline
- Medicine & Surgery
- Evidence
- Documented
- Confidence
- High
- Verification
- Reference-cited
Meanwhile in the West
Dentistry as a profession is a much later development.
Fair to say
Prehistoric drilling, not modern dentistry; reconstructed from archaeology.
Path to modern innovation
Recognised as the world's oldest dental intervention.
Transmission
Independent prehistoric practice.
References
- 1Coppa et al., Nature 440 (2006)
Further reading
Related
Corrections and additional sources: edit IND-098 on GitHub.