NATURAL LIVING: Ancient hunter-gatherers had rotten teeth.

Scientists have long thought that tooth decay only became common in humans about 10,000 years ago, when we began farming – and eating starchy crops that fed sugar-loving bacteria on our teeth. But Isabelle De Groote of the Natural History Museum in London, UK, and her colleagues have found widespread tooth decay in hunter-gatherers that lived several thousand years before the origin of agriculture.

Her team analysed the remains of 52 adults who lived between 15,000 and 13,700 years ago, and who were buried together in a cave in Taforalt, Morocco. They found evidence of decay in more than half of the surviving teeth, a prevalence of dental disease comparable to that of modern, industrial societies with diets high in refined sugars. Only three skeletons at the site showed no signs of cavities.

Reminds me of atherosclerosis in ancient Egyptian mummies: “An examination of mummified bodies has revealed that ancient Egyptians suffered from hardening of the arteries in surprising frequency, suggesting that blame for heart disease extends beyond the modern culprits of smoking, fast food and the remote control.”