For decades, archaeologists have studied the remains of Pavlovian peoples, who lived in Central Europe between 29,000 and 25,000 years ago. These Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, named after the Pavlov Hills in what is now the Czech Republic, had sophisticated Stone Age technology that enabled them to survive in the unforgiving tundra. They lived off of hunting mammoths, producing intricate ivory carvings, developing some of the earliest ceramic technologies, and even building shelters using mammoth bones.

But their teeth tell quite the story.

John C. Willman of the Laboratory of Prehistory (CIAS) at the University of Coimbra observed distinctive wear on the buccal (cheek-facing) surfaces of the molars, premolars, and canines in most adolescents and nearly all adults from Pavlovian sites.

“The enamel wear on cheek surfaces struck me as very similar to the wear caused by labrets and other facial piercings that are found in some bioarchaeological, ethnographic, and clinical cases. Furthermore, there was some interesting evidence for the movement of teeth (crowding, rotations) that could have been caused by pressure exerted by habitually wearing labrets — basically the opposite of what happens if you wear braces or retainer to straighten your own teeth,” wrote Willman in a blog post.

Additionally, microscopic analysis of the worn enamel shows wear planes that are consistent with repeated friction — much like what would be expected from an object resting against the inside of the cheek over many years.

Is it really piercings?

Earlier theories suggested that Pavlovians may have sucked on small stones to alleviate thirst, a behavior recorded among some Indigenous peoples. Others proposed an unknown habitual activity that involved repeated contact between teeth and foreign objects. But Willman thinks it’s piercings.

“The wear patterns, tooth movement/crowding, and a variety of other lines of evidence all taken together strongly suggested to me that labrets, rather than any other kind of behavior, were a likely cause for the flat buccal surfaces in the Pavlovian individuals I studied. Incredibly, some children as young as 6–10 years old had cheek surface wear. However, most adolescents and all adults with well-preserved teeth exhibited the cheek surface wear on one or both sides of their dentition.”

Younger individuals tend to show wear on one side, while older adults exhibit wear on both sides. This suggests that some Pavlovians may have started with a single labret in childhood before adopting a second one later in life. It also hints at a form of social maturation—perhaps a rite of passage tied to age or status.

However, there’s a problem. No graves were found to contain such piercings. This could happen because they were made of perishable material like wood or leather, or that they were kept in circulation, writes Willman.

“It’s my hope that future analyses of the material culture from Pavlovian archaeological sites find some artifacts that resemble labrets documented in other parts of the world.”

If labrets were indeed used, they might have signified age, achievements, or group membership. They may have been a symbol of identity or a rite of passage, much like tattoos, piercings, and body modifications in many cultures today.

“Whatever the ultimate cause of the buccal wear may be, it is notable that the unique patterning of wear is found in all adults, most adolescents, and some children across all Pavlovian sites studied. Uniformity in these wear patterns suggest shared, embodied behavior(s) among Pavlovian peoples across their lifecourses.”

The study “Probable Use of Labrets Among the Mid-Upper Paleolithic Pavlovian Peoples of Central Europe” was published in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology.