SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

3000-year-old sawn-off tooth may be the earliest evidence of horse dentistry [sciencemag.org]

Three thousand years ago, a horse in Mongolia had a toothache that was probably making it—and its owner—miserable. So the owner tried to help, by attempting to saw the painful top off the offending incisor. The procedure is among the earliest evidence of veterinary dentistry in the world, according to a new study, and the practices that flowed from it may have helped horses transform human civilization.

"It's a great study," says Robin Bendrey, an archaeologist and ancient horse expert at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the work. As horses became more important, he says, nomadic herders "are investing greater effort in understanding how to care for them."

[...] Together with another cut tooth from around the same time, the discovery shows that about 2000 years after horses were first domesticated [sciencemag.org], people were still figuring out the best way to take care of their teeth using basic stone tools.

Origins of equine dentistry [pnas.org] (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1721189115) (DX [doi.org])

Original Submission