Neanderthal dentists used stone drills to treat cavities nearly 60,000 years ago, ancient molar suggests (phys.org)

submitted 6 days ago by ZeroCool@piefed.ca to c/archaeology@mander.xyz

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[-] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

😂 In Earth's Children, the main character occasionally uses anesthetic beverages to operate on others painlessly. I don't know how documented that is. When I have some free time, I'll look up anesthetic use during the ~~neolithic~~ upper paleolithic.

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I suppose they could make wine, but anything stronger would require distilling. I’m not sure if they were capable of that? Though maybe there were other things they could smoke or ingest. Opium comes to mind, but not sure if that was available in the geographic regions you would find Neanderthals?

[-] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

I don't think there is evidence of neanderthals making pottery. Unlikely that they would be able to make alcohol.

[-] Mike_The_TV@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/09/17/in-the-wild-chimps-likely-ingest-the-equivalent-of-several-alcoholic-drinks-every-day/ Wouldn't necessarily need pottery.

this post was submitted on 14 May 2026

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Archaeology

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Archaeology or archeology[a] is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes.

Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.

The discipline involves surveying, excavation, and eventually analysis of data collected, to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Read more...

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