The San Francisco call., 1913-08-31
COLD TEETH FOUND
IN ANCIENT SKULLS
Professor Saville Makes an
Interesting Discovery of
Relics in Ecuador

Prof. Marshall Howard Saville, head
Of the department Of American archae-
oIogy in Columbia university, re-
turned recently by the Hamburg
American liner Carl schurz from an
expedition in Ecuador that for it's
brevity and results probably has been
unsurpassed in the annals of South
American searches for prehistoric
treasures. says the New York sun.
The professor has the exploring
habit and has achieved distinction
heretofore by discoveries of Aztec ard
Zapotec remains in Mexico. He went
alone on this Ecuadorian trip, spend
ing most Of the two months he all
lowed himself for digging into
mounts in the province of Esmeraldas,
in northwest Ecuador, to find pre-In-
can relics.
He was surprised at the results Of
his work, which he brought to New
York by the Carl Schurz. He says
| they indicate very high order of
civilization among the brown peoples
Of that section of South America.
The most amazing find was of
| skulls that showed their possessors
to be men of a type superior to the
| Aztecs and perhaps comparable In
some respects with the Egyptians.
! The teeth Of these skulls were filled
with gold and cement. indicating that
dentistry was in high stage of de-
velopment In Ecuador maybe more
than thousand years ago and GER
tanly before the Columbian period
HIS TWENTY-sECOND TRIP
Professor Saville said it was his
twenty second trip into the equato-
rial or near equatorial zone of South
America. He managed to get along
in places little frequented by men bet
/ ter than he did in places where he
found men. He did all his own work.
! he said, on this, his most successful
incursion into the prehistoric world
of the Ecuadorians, who were not
really Ecuadorians, but some other
i sort of people with a name that may
never be revealed. He believes he
has gathered much new knowledge OF
i the ancient civilization of the peoples
that inhabited the neighborhood Of
Ecuador ages ago.
The gold filed teeth struck him as
the most unusual feature of his finds.
| In Mexico he had dug UP skulls with
teeth filled or ornamented with stone,
| but he had never before seen gold fill
ings in a prehistoric skull. The gold
was on the edges of the teeth and
had been applied from the inside. 1t
showed little on the outside, SO the
| purpose appeared to be less for orna-
mentation than for utility. Some Of
the teeth were filed with cement.
In all cases. whether the filings were
gold or cement, the borings Indicated
that tool had been used that did
| the work possibly as well as the in
strument of the modern dentist.
Some of the teeth that apparently had
/ been loosened were held together by
gold bands.
When the owners of the several
skulls that the professor brought 10
New York with him lived in Ecuador
| must be matter OF conjectEre; he
says the skulls may be a thousand
| years old and perhaps more.
THE skill with which these people
worked speaks volumes for the CEN
| turies of civilization preceding US, and
I may even be able to get volume
out of it myself" the professor re-
marked.
FINE MODELS IN CLAY
Next to the skill of the aboriginal
Ecuadorians as dentists their genIu.
as molders in clay most impressed
Professor Savi1le. Two beautifully
modelled heads. about the size of an
ordinary orange, attracted the atten-
tion Of the customs inspector and ap-