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(*) Summary.

Evidence of prehistoric dentistry has been limited to a few cases, the most ancient dating back to the Neolithic. Here we report a 6500-year-old human mandible from Slovenia whose left canine crown bears the traces of a filling with beeswax. The use of different analytical techniques, including synchrotron radiation computed micro-tomography (micro-CT), Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating, Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), has shown that the exposed area of dentine resulting from occlusal wear and the upper part of a vertical crack affecting enamel and dentin tissues were filled with beeswax shortly before or after the individual’s death. If the filling was done when the person was still alive, the intervention was likely aimed to relieve tooth sensitivity derived from either exposed dentine and/or the pain resulting from chewing on a cracked tooth: this would provide the earliest known direct evidence of therapeutic-palliative dental filling.

(**) Biodata.

Dr. Federico Bernardini graduated in Prehistoric Archaeology in 2002 and discussed his Ph.D. thesis in Archaeometry at the University of Trieste in 2009. He is also enrolled at the Faculty of Geology of the same University.In 2003 he collaborated with the Earth Science Faculty of the Open University, Milton Keynes (UK) on an interdisciplinary project about the provenance of some monoliths of Stonehenge (the famous blue stones) using a non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence instrumentation. In 2004-2005 he was given/obtained a grant supported by the Republic of Slovenia to work as researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts (SAZU). He carried out archaeometric studies of prehistoric stone artifacts and was also involved in many archaeological surveys and excavations, in the study and reordering of archaeological artifacts and in the organization of exhibitions in collaboration with several national and international institutions. In 2010 Dr. Bernardini was granted the Salvatore Improta award by Associazione Italiana di Archeometria for his work in Archaeometry. He has worked since 2009 at the Multidisciplinary Laboratory of ICTP in the frame of the ICTP-Elettra EXACT Project (Elemental X-ray Analysis and Computed Tomography), which aims to develop innovative X-ray analytical tools for non-invasive studies of cultural heritage.

Dr. Claudio Tuniz is the former Assistant Director of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) (2004-2011). His main field of interest is the application of advanced physics methods in palaeoanthropology and human evolution, including the use of absolute geochronometry and X-ray imaging. He coordinates projects on advanced X-ray microanalysis at the ICTP M-Lab. At present he is also Visiting Professor at the University of Wollongong (Australia) and at the University La Sapienza (Rome).
Dr. Tuniz led for 10 years the accelerator mass spectrometry programme at the Lucas Heights Research Laboratories in Sydney, developing research programmes in many interdisciplinary areas, including global climate change, and archaeology. He was also Director of the Physics Division at Lucas Heights Research Laboratories (1996-1999) and coordinated a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary research based on the use of ions, neutrons and synchrotron radiation. He was Nuclear Counsellor at the Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations Organisations in Vienna between 1999 and 2004.
He is Editor-in-chief of the international journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Springer, as well as author and co-author of over 100 international journal and conference publications, including three books, several book chapters. I would like to highlight especially the book "Radioactivity", Oxford University Press, 2012 and his co-authorship of the books "The Bone Readers. Atoms, genes and the politics of Australia’s deep past", with R. Gillespie and C. Jones, Allan & Unwin, Sydney, Australia, Left Coast Press, USA, Springer Italia, 2009 and "Accelerator Mass Spectrometry", with J.R. Bird, D. Fink and G.F. Herzog, CRC Press, LLC, 1998.