The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-11-07
AGE-OLD DENTAL
WORK FOUND
IN WEST
F#9 AHs tMNA s
Museum Authorities Think Il
Shows Earliest Americans
Came From Asia

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. Z. - On
the heels Of the unearthing of q pre-
historic city buried in the sands of
Nevada, word has been received at
the University of Pennsylvania mu-
scum of two more discoveries tend
ing to substantiate the theory that
the earliest inhabitants Of America
were of Asiatic origin.
One Of these discoveries, made in
the district of Huasteca Potosina,
Mexico, was a small silver image
said by psychologists to be between
5000 and 10000 years old. The other
was the distihterring of complete
set OF rudely formed dental instru-
ments and filled tooth in the jaw
bone Of prehistoric woman in an
ancient burial ground in the Santa
Monica foothills of California.
. Images Of golden dragons and ser.
pents in the Nevada Pompeii ruins
suggested, by following the trail
OF the golden dragon that the an.
Gent peoples of Central America,
Mexico and southwestern United
States were closely related and prob
ably had felt oriental influence. The
silver image just found in Mexico
ia the only one of it's kind known.
II is of man and shows a dis
tinct Asiatic bfluence.
Well Preserved.
The image, which is remarkably
well preserved, cannot be identified
with any known god. The silver
10 moulded in very primitive fash
ion and is not purified. Traces of
arsenic prove the date of the
making, according to archeologistS
in the National Museum of Mexico,
by the maner of it's smelling.
The figure is the clearest and
most beautiful specimen of the al.
most mythical pre-Toltecs, while
comparison with the Totonac and
Tarascan figures shows points of
similarity such as the rounding and
cubical forming of the limbs and
the peculiar cylindrical smoothness
Of the head.
Asiatic Origin Seen.
The finding Of the jawbone with
a filled molar and the set of dental
instruments further cofirms the be-
lief that communicate between this
country and Asia might have been
established before the exploits OF
Columbus. The molar directly be-
hind the filled one had been ex.
tracted by means Of pressure, such
az is used today in modern ~dent-
istry, rather than by pulling. A
minute examination Of the jawbone
disclosed this.
Archeologists who examined the
mandible state the most interesting
revelation was in the examination of
the crude filling wonderfully pre-
served in the first right molar. The
cavity had been crudely ground out,
possibly with a sharp stone and the
filling so tightly packed that 1t
had withstood the ages under grouno
An analysis of the composition made
by PSYCHOLOGISTS, as nearly as could
be determined, revealed that the
cavity had been filled with a mix
ture of black copper cement, which
Is used in refined state by den-
lists of today.
Dental instruments.
Just apart from the grave in
which the nandible was found there
was discoyered the complete set of
ancient dental instruments, smoothly
ground from what PSYCHOLOGISTS be-
neve to be human ribs. The instru-
ments are of various shapes and
sizes and, like the jawbone, are very
well preserved. 1t is believed the
process Of grinding the bones must
have taken several months, for many
Of the Amaller instruments are
ground to needle-point sharpness
The fact that never before have
signs of dentistry having been prac.
ticed among the aborigines of this
country leads to the belief that
the science was not generally known,
and that in all probability possibly
only one or at least a very few
ancient dentists found their way to
America from Asia,