A new research suggests that cheek piercings were popular as long ago as 30,000 years, with teenagers and children as young as 10 years old sporting labrets during the Ice Age. Biological anthropologist John C. Willman from the University of Coimbra believes he solved the mystery of the unusual dental wear found in the remains of the Pavlovian culture of Central Europe.
The Pavlovian culture, which inhabited Central Europe between 25,000 and 29,000 years ago, exhibits atypical wear on their molars, premolars, and canines, particularly on the cheek side of the teeth. Whenever archaeologists discover a burial from the culture, they find this unique detail.
Malformed teeth have long been a point of study for scientists. "There was a long history of discussion of the strange wear on the canines and cheek teeth of these individuals, but no one really knew what caused the wear," Willman said, according to Live Science.
Willman's research suggests that the worn and crowded teeth of Pavlovian people indicate the use of labret piercings, which may have caused teeth to shift, akin to wearing "reverse" braces. "Piercing can lead to tooth displacement, acting like 'reverse' braces. Some people have been observed to have tooth crowding, which was probably the result of many years of wearing labrets," he explained, according to The Travel.
Labrets, typically made from bone, wood, or stone, are piercings inserted into a person's lower lip or cheek area, reports Live Science. Specialists believe that the marks on the Pavlovian teeth could have arisen from wearing labrets made from beads, ivory, soapstone, and bones.
To investigate a possible link between the tooth wear and labret use, Willman examined patterns in the worn teeth. "I thought that the patterns of dental wear caused by labrets were a really good hypothesis for what caused the wear in the Pavlovians," he said.
"Getting your first labret seemed to have occurred in childhood, since wear is documented in some baby teeth," Willman stated, supporting the notion of early use among ancient cultures. The pattern of dental wear is found in all adults, most adolescents, and some children at all studied sites, including Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov in the present-day Czech Republic.
Adults had a higher degree of cheek-region enamel wear across more teeth than children did, indicating that the older the person, the worse the deterioration of their teeth, according to La Vanguardia. Some samples of older individuals show dental crowding, which Willman interprets as the effect of having the ornaments pressed against the teeth for long periods, the publication notes.
Labrets acted as markers of social belonging and individual identity among Ice Age adolescents, signaling a person's membership in a group. "The variation in tooth wear may relate to individual choice, different life experiences that 'earn' labrets during life, like going through puberty or marriage," Willman stated.
Previously, theories suggested that the atypical wear was due to individuals putting small stones in their mouths to relieve thirst or stimulate salivation. However, labret piercings provide a more plausible explanation for the wear patterns observed.
To date, no artifacts identified as labrets have been found in the burials of the culture, possibly because they were made of perishable materials like wood or leather and have not survived, Willman explained.
"Willman's study offers a window onto a long disappeared behavior—it gives scientists a way of studying personal and social identity as they change throughout a person's life," said April Nowell, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Victoria in Canada who was not involved in the study.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq