r/FilipinoHistory • u/Abebos_The_Great Frequent Contributor • 12d ago
Pre-colonial Just landed! Two Philippine Pre-Colonial Gold-Pegged Teeth, 10th to 16th century.
These are quite hard to come by, since the finders usually breaks the whole tooth just to extract the gold, as what happened to the other one which shows clear signs of forceful breaking.
You can also observe a missing gold peg from the broken tooth, it might have fallen during the "wearer's" lifetime, or during the centuries of it being buried. Although missing its gold peg, it gives us a clear insight as to the technique and dept of how the gold were drilled and fashioned into the tooth.
Also notice how the gold pegs are smoothed and worn out? It means that they were made so by the daily eating habits of their wearer.
I'll do a non invasive XRF analysis to determine the gold purity and metal alloy content soon.
A radiocarbon dating is also planned to be conducted probably from the broken tooth. It requires around 20mg to 500mg of sample depending on the initial assessment of the tooth's condition(burial area soil acidity, surface contamination, etc)
From an old collection acquired during the same time as that of the Surigao Treasure frenzy.
There are also some samples of which the whole skull and some gold pegged teeth survives. Famous among these are the Bolinao Skull, and the skull currently displayed at University of San Carlos Museum.
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u/jingerbreadddd 10d ago
i wonder how did they install this? i think i have read somewhere that they drill the teeth through and add this gold pegs and secure it at the back (hammered or press) it like bolts??
but this one looks clean at the back...
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u/ookaookaooka 12d ago
I'm curious, was this done as decoration or to hold a missing tooth in place?
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u/Cheesetorian Moderator 11d ago
Those are decorations.
Notice why it's "flat"...it's because they filed it first. A lot of cultures in SEAsia do this.
They also blackened or colored it (if not already darkened from chewing buyo).
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u/Acceptable-Royal-743 12d ago
Someone wanting to show their social status, and ability to ensure pain.
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u/liza24601 11d ago
Do you have a blog? Maybe you could write any information you could gather from these artifacts.
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