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A human that lived over 12,000 years ago in east Africa probably had facial piercings, making this the oldest known example of a facial piercing in Africa, and the second oldest in the world. The finding suggests humans have been wearing facial piercings in Africa since deep in prehistory.

鈥淲e鈥檙e potentially opening a window into the life of this individual,鈥� says John Willman at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. Piercings and other body modifications 鈥渁re often associated with social maturation, things like puberty and rites of passage鈥�, he says.

The fossil is that of a young adult male, known as Olduvai Hominid 1, or OH1. in Olduvai gorge in Tanzania, one of the most famous hominin fossil sites. 鈥淚t鈥檚 technically the first hominin fossil discovered in Olduvai gorge,鈥� says Willman. However, , OH1 hadn鈥檛 been studied much until recently when newer methods became available.

Prehistoric piercing

In 1993, researchers noted , which they thought was due to chewing tough plant material. 鈥淚 took one look at it and said 鈥榥o鈥�,鈥� says Willman. He has studied the skeletons of First Peoples from Canada, who often wore facial piercings that left distinctive marks on their teeth, and says the marks on OH1鈥檚 teeth are 鈥渁 dead ringer for that sort of thing鈥�.

Willman and his colleagues re-examined and measured OH1鈥檚 teeth and jawbone. They found that the incisor teeth were worn at the front. 鈥淚t looks almost like somebody took the front end off these teeth with an ice cream scoop,鈥� he says.

Towards the back of the mouth, the premolars and molars were also worn. 鈥淎ll the curvature you can feel when you run your tongue over your cheek teeth is virtually gone,鈥� says Willman.

The team believes these wear patterns mean OH1 had three facial piercings: a 鈥渓abret鈥� through his lower lip, and one in each cheek. Because they haven鈥檛 been preserved, we don鈥檛 know what they were made of or what they looked like.

OH1 lived between 12,000 and 20,000 years ago, suggesting humans have been wearing facial piercings for at least that long. Previously, most of the evidence for piercings came from fossils of humans who were alive in the last 5000 years. 鈥淲e see a lot of them in later prehistory, but not this long ago,鈥� says Willman.

He has found evidence of people in central Europe , which is the oldest instance on record. However, OH1 is 鈥渢he oldest in Africa that we know of鈥�, he says.