Dental filling

The dental filling is repair work on the body—the first deliberate modification of human tissue to restore function. Around 11,000 years ago in Slovenia, someone packed beeswax into a cracked tooth, filling the cavity with a material that would seal against bacteria and reduce pain. This wasn't accidental; it was dentistry.

The adjacent possible for dental fillings required understanding that decay could be halted, that materials could adhere to tooth surfaces, and that such interventions could reduce suffering. Neolithic cultures had beeswax from early apiculture; they had bitumen from natural seeps; they had the conceptual framework—already evident in wound treatment—that human intervention could improve on nature's healing.

The Lonche tooth, discovered in a Slovenian cave and dated to approximately 11,000 BCE, shows a vertical crack filled with beeswax. The filling was applied while the person was alive (wear patterns prove it) and served for years. This wasn't emergency treatment but planned dental work—someone understood that filled teeth hurt less than unfilled ones.

Dental problems were endemic in Neolithic populations. The transition to agriculture brought grain-heavy diets that promoted decay; harder foods created fractures; and nothing in human evolutionary history had prepared teeth for grinding dried cereals. Dental pain was ubiquitous, creating powerful demand for any intervention that worked.

Later Neolithic sites show more sophisticated dental work: drilled cavities in Pakistan around 7,000 BCE indicate intentional removal of decay before filling. The trajectory from passive filling to active drilling mirrors modern dentistry in miniature—first protect, then repair. The beeswax filling was the conceptual foundation on which 13,000 years of dental development would build.