The ordinary wooden toothpick is one of the simplest objects and is considered to be the oldest tool for dental cleaning, covering more than just human species.
Several higher primates used similar objects to rub or pluck their teeth, and increasing archaeological evidence from across Europe suggests that Neanderthals also had a habit of scraping food out of their mouths. We know this because it left a big impression on their constituencies.
A newly analyzed tooth, discovered in a Polish cave in 2010, has now been found with a spindle-like groove on the side, indicating the in-and-out movement of a toothpick.
The dental measurements of the area’s top premolar and radiocarbon dating suggest that it once belonged to a male Neanderthal man in his thirties who cleaned his teeth as cleanly as 46,000 years ago.
“It appears that the owner of the tooth used oral hygiene. Probably there was food residue between the last two teeth that had to be removed,” explains archaeologist Wioletta Nowaczewska of the University of Wroclaw in an article for Science in Poland.
“We do not know from what he made a toothpick – a piece of twig, a piece of bone or herringbone. It had to be a fairly stiff, cylindrical object that the individual used often enough to leave a clear mark. . “
(Nowaczewska et al., Journal of Human Evolution, 2021)
Above: a) The radial wear pattern on the inside of the premolar; b) A vertical toothpick groove visible below the bearing set, on the right.
A handful of other teeth have been found in the Stajnia Cave near Krakow, and it is believed to belong to the Neanderthals as well. Some of them even show similar attempts at prehistoric dental hygiene, although their deterioration is more difficult to study.
The remarkable state of this newly analyzed molar has now enabled scientists to do 2D and 3D analysis of the enamel, which in the Neanderthal people is generally thinner compared to Homo sapiens.
Further mitochondrial DNA analysis confirmed that this tooth probably belonged to a Neanderthal, and according to the authors, the tooth’s largest groove was probably caused by mechanical abrasion.
The location, shape, orientation and appearance of this scratch are consistent with other signs of Neanderthal people wiggling their teeth elsewhere in Europe.
In 2017, archaeologists announced the discovery of a unique Neanderthal tooth, found in present-day Croatia, that showed remnants of picking and chiseling from 130,000 years ago – possibly as a way to relieve pain.
In 2013, even older Neanderthal teeth, excavated in present-day Spain, were rediscovered with similar impressions. There is even a wooden fragment stuck between two of the molars.
Other materials that Neanderthals may have used to clean their teeth include bone, tendon and grass, although this has not yet been confirmed in the archaeological report.
According to the famous engineer Henry Petroski, who wrote an entire book on the toothpick, this modest tool is one of the most convenient and ready-made tools in human possession, requiring no parts to assemble, no maintenance and no instructions to do not use – or at least, it should not.
In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the very words that eventually drive the scientist Wonko to social hermitage are indications for toothpick, which is believed to be the oldest human habit.
As Wonko noted, “a civilization that has so far lost its head in having to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a pack of toothpicks was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay healthy.”
It seems that even Neanderthals, who are stereotypically considered primitive brute, had enough common sense and intuition to use the toothpick – without much direction.
The study was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.