The 25,000-Year-Old Teeth That Just Rewrote The History Of Human Drug Use

The dental wear on CPL-R2a is even more dramatic than on the older individual.

The Archaeology.org account describes his teeth as “worn right to the root in some areas” — a level of degradation that would have exposed the pulp chamber, the nerve-filled core of the tooth.

Exposed pulp means pain.

Severe, chronic, unavoidable pain every time the tooth was exposed to anything.

This observation is one of the most important in the entire study, because it opens a specific interpretive possibility: the pain produced by the dental destruction may have become the driver of continued betel nut use.

Here is how the feedback loop would have worked: The forager begins using betel nut for some initial reason — relief of a toothache, social behavior, curiosity, ritual.