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c. 7500-5500 BCEPeer-reviewed · 3 sourcesWell documented

The Dentists of Mehrgarh Drill Living Teeth

Nine adults buried at a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan show the oldest known evidence of drilling into a living tooth

On the timeline · around c. 7500-5500 BCE · Mehrgarh and the Indus Valley CivilizationMehrgarh and the Indus Valley CivilizationThe Dentists of Mehrgarh Drill Living Teeth7,000 BCE6,500 BCE6,000 BCE5,500 BCE5,000 BCE4,500 BCE4,000 BCE3,500 BCE3,000 BCE2,500 BCE

Quick facts

Study
Coppa et al., "Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry," Nature, 2006
Sample
11 drilled molar crowns from 9 adults
Tool used
Flint-tipped bow drill, the same tool used for bead-making
Evidence of healing
Present on several teeth, confirming drilling occurred in living patients

What happened

In a paper published in Nature in 2006, Andrea Coppa and colleagues, including site excavators Catherine and Jean-Francois Jarrige, reported eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults buried in Mehrgarh's Neolithic graveyard. Using scanning electron microscopy, the team found conical holes bored into the crowns of the teeth, all of them molars far too far back in the mouth to be decorative, with some showing signs of healing that prove the drilling happened while the person was alive. The tool marks match the flint-tipped bow drills that Mehrgarh's craftspeople used to bore beads out of turquoise and lapis lazuli, meaning the same technology built jewelry and treated teeth. Four of the drilled teeth show cavities near the hole, suggesting at least some of the drilling addressed dental disease rather than ritual or ornament.

Why it matters

This pushed the origin of a recognizable dental practice back roughly 4,000 years earlier than the previously oldest known evidence, showing that Mehrgarh's population had already adapted a specialized craft tool, the bow drill used for bead-making, to a medical purpose. It demonstrates that Neolithic technical skill was not confined to ornament and construction; the same precision tools were turned on the human body.

How we know

The Nature paper is a peer-reviewed direct study of the excavated remains: the authors used electron microscopy to compare the drilled holes to experimental drilling with period-appropriate flint tools, and radiocarbon dating of the graveyard placed the burials between roughly 7,500 and 9,000 years old.

Sources

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Part of a timelineAncient India29 events · From the granaries of Mehrgarh to the astronomers of the Gupta court, the long record of the Indian subcontinent's first cities, philosophies, and empiresView all →