Beeswax Filling Found in 6,500-Year-Old Human Tooth

Microphotograph of the tooth crown in occlusal view with indication of the surface covered by beeswax within the dotted line. (Bernardini F, Tuniz C, Coppa A, Mancini L, Dreossi D, et al. (2012) Beeswax as Dental Filling on a Neolithic Human Tooth. PLoS ONE 7(9): e44904. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044904)

Evidence that stone-age dentists were at work nearly seven millennia ago was discovered in Eastern Europe.

A team of mostly Italian researchers studied a human jawbone, found in Slovenia near the Italian border, that contains a cracked canine tooth with a beeswax filling inside.