Makes me wonder

May 13 is Root Canal Appreciation Day. Without mentioning the date, New Scientist published an article about amazing ancient dentistry. Neanderthals were drilling teeth to get rid of decay 59000 years ago.

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In the Altai mountains of southwestern Siberia – where Neanderthals migrated from Europe about 70,000 years ago – researchers discovered a lower molar with a large, irregularly shaped concavity comprising three partially overlapping dips into the entire pulp chamber.

Advanced imaging showed two cavities and scrapes consistent with repetitive toothpick use. It also revealed traces of rotation by pointed stone tools – probably made of jasper like the tools found in the same cave – directly into the cavity.

The researchers tried various drilling and scraping techniques in their lab using replicated fine-pointed jasper stone tools with two prehistoric specimens and one modern one with a cavity, which had been recently extracted from Zotkina’s mouth. The team succeeded in making similar holes in a 50-minute process that required precision and practice to prevent fracturing the tooth itself.

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59000 years later, on May 13 this year, a dentist was drilling into my lower molar. He was using more modern tools with the same result.

Our incessant hatred of “primitive” Neanderthals parallels our incessant hatred of “primitive” Russians. We deprived ourselves of epigenes and analog computation, and ruined our own technical education, because we COULDN’T LET THE RUSSIANS BE RIGHT.

We did the same with Islamic science. When we super-belatedly resumed thinking in 1500, we copied everything from Arab and Persian scientists, then switched our history to give sole credit to Christianity for resuming the science that it had KILLED for 1000 fucking years.

Makes me wonder if we switched the history of the Neanderthals BECAUSE they were in Russia. Also makes me wonder if they migrated to Russia because proto-Krauts were persecuting them.