Dental ablation and facial piercing in Late Pleistocene southwestern Asia and Africa

Bioarchaeological approaches to permanent body modification—such as tooth ablation, facial piercing, and cranial modification—among Pleistocene peoples are augmenting our understanding of social identities and population dynamics in the deep past. Recent analyses of an early Epipaleolithic skeleton, Ohalo II H2, from southwestern Asia and the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Oldupai (Olduvai) Hominid 1 skeleton from Tanzania provided dental evidence for permanent body modification. A differential diagnosis of antemortem tooth loss is suggestive of the intentional removal of a maxillary central incisor of Ohalo II H2. Thus, Ohalo II H2 represents the earliest probable case of intentional incisor ablation in Southwest Asia—a widespread cultural practice in Iberomaurusian and Natufian contexts. An analysis of Oldupai Hominid 1 dental wear is suggestive of the use of facial piercings (“labrets”)—a form of body modification previously unknown in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene contexts in East Africa. Both case studies are exceptional in that they are chronologically early representations of probable permanent body modification practices in their regions. They also highlight the potential for using embodied markers of human social identities to understand the population dynamics of Pleistocene peoples.