Archaeological/Anthropological Dental Artefacts: Lost, Forgotten, and Intriguingly Possible.

Abstract

Many artefacts important to the history of dentistry have disappeared from collections. The missing artefacts represent dental techniques of many cultures and all historical eras. The artifact collections include those of major first world institutions and private collections. Many of the artefacts were collected in the early days of scientific archaeology and museum curation and hopefully are simply lying unforgotten in storage. As if to compensate for the disappointment of such failures, hope lies in literary texts that speak of artefacts that may yet be discovered.