Neanderthal self-medication in context

@article{Hardy2013NeanderthalSI,
  title={Neanderthal self-medication in context},
  author={Karen Hardy and Stephen Buckley and Michael Alan Huffman},
  journal={Antiquity},
  year={2013},
  volume={87},
  pages={873 - 878}
}
In a recent study, Hardy et al. (2012) identified compounds from two non-nutritional plants, yarrow and camomile, in a sample of Neanderthal dental calculus from the northern Spanish site of El Sidrón. Both these plants are bitter tasting and have little nutritional value but are well known for their medicinal qualities. Bitter taste can signal poison. We know that the bitter taste perception gene TAS2R38 was present among the Neanderthals of El Sidrón (Lalueza-Fox et al. 2009), and their… 
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Two recent articles offer alternative scenarios for why and how those plants may have reached the mouth and, eventually, the dental calculus of the individual concerned, and consider their probability and feasibility as alternatives to the original proposal of self-medication.
Flavouring food: the contribution of chimpanzee behaviour to the understanding of Neanderthal calculus composition and plant use in Neanderthal diets
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Observations of wild chimpanzees in Uganda, at Sonso in the Budongo Forest Reserve and at Kanyawara and Sebitoli in Kibale National Park, as well as ethnological and palaeontological evidence, lead us to propose three other explanations for the presence of compounds in yarrow and camomile.
Dental Calculus Reveals Unique Insights into Food Items, Cooking and Plant Processing in Prehistoric Central Sudan
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It is demonstrated the ingestion in both pre-agricultural and agricultural periods of Cyperus rotundus tubers and its ability to inhibit Streptococcus mutans may have contributed to the unexpectedly low level of caries found in the agricultural population.
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The hypothesize on the possible scope of self-medication in Tibetan macaques and suggest future avenues for research are hypothesized.
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  • 2019
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A broad‐spectrum approach to plant collection is likely to have been in place throughout the Paleolithic driven, in part, by the need for medicinal compounds.
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Iatrosedation and hypnosis are no less relevant than drugs and should be considered as primary tools for the management of DA: they allow to help patients cope with the dental procedure and also overcome their anxiety: achieving the latter may enable them to face future dental care autonomously, whereas pharmacological sedation can only afford a transient respite.
Neanderthals, trees and dental calculus: new evidence from El Sidrón
Abstract Analysis of dental calculus is increasingly important in archaeology, although the focus has hitherto been on dietary reconstruction. Non-edible material has, however, recently been…
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