Evening star., 1914-07-05
FILLING Of TEETH AN ART
MANY CENTURIES AGO
Dental Operations Practiced by
Americas Aborigines Before
- the Columbian Era.

VI Filling teeth with foreign substances
was an art practiced among the aborigi-
enes of America hundreds of years before
(rhe Columbian era, according to an in
Y Hteresting article in the June number of
inthe Pan-American Bulletin. which re-
l*views the latest treaties on the subject
l'by Dr. Marshall H. Saville, Loubat pro-
/ fessor of American archeology in Column
bfa University. In his scientific investi-
cations In the west coast provinces of
| Ecuador and Colombia he has made
! Smany valuable discoveries. His first visit
l'to this region was made In the summer
kofs19O6 In a communication to the Inter-
national Congress Of Americanists held
VAT Vienna in 1905 among other interest
tingtdetails was an, account dealing with
nhetsubject of decoration of the teeth
Decoration of,Teeth by Inlays.
s.Another custom which we found in
Es,neraldas. and which,, so far as We are
aware. is not present I'M any other part
Of aSouth America, IS the decoration of
thei teeth by the insertion of inlays in
smell perforations cut in the enamel of
tthe upper incisors." he stated. This
-custom Of decoratingithe teeth was quite
common in various parts of Mexico,
where different settings We're used In
the ;Mayan area, as far south as Saliva
DOR. the object most often used for the
inlay was jadeite. In Mexico. for ex-
amplekin Oaxaca. have found hematite
used; in Vera Cruz turquoise has been
found. and in other parts teeth with set
tings Of rock crystal, obsidian and a red
cement, have been found. We have never
heard. of this custom in Colombia or
Peru, but in Esmeraldas, in Atacames
skulls have been found with tiny disks
AZ
manner in Mexico and Central Amer
ica, with the exception Of the material" 4"
The Pan-American reviewer states that
the fipating of teeth inlaid with gold, tur-
quoise and other substances, in the skulls
and Armong the skeletal remains of
aborigi mes who lived in various parts of
the AZ nerican continents prior to the
Spanish discoveries has been a matter
of peculiar interest.
..Whei lper this insertion of foreign sub
stances in the enamel of the teeth was
always for merely decorative purposes or
whether at times ii may haye been to
serve a. useful end. has been 1nooted
question: The general consensus of opin-
ion among anthropologists IS that orna-
menta1ion"was the sole object.
other Discoveries Noted.
Last ,s ummer Prof. Sayi!ie returned
from aife, the- archaeological trip TO South
America. with numerous valuable speci-
mems, am ing them being one of unusual
interest. =, described by the professor as
follows:
In thet spring of 1913. Cholo, one of
the nativS.- of Atacames, a town i'll the
province of Esmeraldas, about eighteen
miles south West of the city of Esmeral-
das, found skeleton in a burial tube
on the rich ID bank of the Rio Atacames.
lust above THE town. The skull was
found wi th the teeth inlaid with gold,
but the ;tjnder contented himself with
breaking off the superior maNiliary,
throwing TN :. rest Of the skull away.
When / visit ed the town in June of the
present year for the purpose OF making
some excaya 1ions to supplement my
former worl obtained the fragment.
The two up,a .r middle teeth are decorat-
ed by the IRIS ertion OF thin gold disks in
cavities drilke or bored in the enamel
of the face Of the teeth An unusual
dental feat, ir addition to the decoration,
is found in tn right middle tooth rms
is not a right, middle ,ncisor, put risht
lateral incisorl which does not belong to
,ha jaw hut i was implanted to replace
the middle inc7= or. This Is such an eX-
traordinarv feature that We must weigh
very carefully he evidence as TO lts nav
ing been founkl in the jaw IN
sod tbara is nc. reason to doubt that the
renIacement ist,a genuine triumph OIL the
ancient DENTS Is. of Atacames,
Anotber skrau showed teeth that hao
-, .sfeca-crrta -nelf' with gold. the
aname, having SoeeM skillfully removed
dow to the de ntine' and the teeth being
In a nerfect st ate Of preservation. 30
much for the petian' dentis's OF tiiou-
sand years ago