14 DAY TRIAL // While working on restoring a statue estimated to be about 300 years old, specialists made a ghastly discovery. In a nutshell, they found as many as 8 actual human teeth inside the mouth of this representation of the Christ.
Media reports say that the statue in question belongs to the parish of San Bartolo Cuautlalpan in Mexico, and is locally known as the Lord of Patience. For decades, worshipers and historians have remained oblivious to its odd anatomy.
Thus, although teeth can be seen adorning the inside of the 18th-century statue's mouth, as noticeable in the photo next to this article, pretty much everybody assumed that the chompers were not real ones.
It was believed that whoever made this statue hundreds of years ago used either animal bone or a piece of horn to carve these teeth. As it turns out, the artist likely had the teeth delivered to him, all polished and ready to use.
“It is common that the sculptures have teeth, but they are usually made of wood or bone carved individually or as a plate, but in this case has eight teeth of an adult,” restoration expert Fanny Unikel said in a statement.
Researchers suspect that the artist who made the statue got the teeth from an adult, and that the chompers were more likely donated to the church. If this were indeed the case, it's safe to assume that it was the man's family who donated the teeth after his death.
While it may be true that the churches in Mexico are no strangers to putting various human body parts on display and having people worship them, specialists who have had the chance to examine the 300-year-old statue maintain that this is the first time human remains have ever been discovered inside a statue.
“The teeth were probably donated as a token of gratitude. It's the first time human teeth have been found in a sculpture,” the National School of Restoration, Conservation, and Museology specialist explained, as cited by C NET.
Since the teeth were simply placed inside the statue's mouth without anyone going through the trouble of explaining their origin, it is unlikely that they are a saintly relic. Had they belonged to a holy individual, they would have surely been better looked after, maybe even put on display in a reliquary.
Check out the video below to have a better look at the teeth found inside the mouth of this statue. Fair warning though, this one representation of Christ is a rather bloody and gruesome one, so viewer discretion is recommended. Lastly, I should probably tell you that the video is in Spanish, so, unless you are familiar with this language, images are all you'll get from it.
