“Could it have belonged to a king?” Raul asked, coming over to check out the tooth.
She held it up between her thumb and index finger. “Possibly, but the procedure of having gemstones drilled and set into the teeth was not limited to the elite. Several recent studies show this was a common practice among some in the middle socioeconomic class, too.”
“But would a middle-class Maya fashionista be at a site that is believed to be for the religious elite?” Quint asked.
“Not likely,” she said. “But those in the noble class might have been allowed. If I remember right, it’s believed that as many as onein three or four elite males had gemstones in their teeth at one point in Maya history.”
Quint pulled out his camera, wanting to capture the image in case it turned out to be something important to the story. “All jade?”
“No. Hematite, quartz, and turquoise were also used. Cinnabar, too, which would have been a pretty red against an ivory-colored tooth.”
He focused his lens and snapped off several closeups of the tooth. “How did they drill out holes in the teeth like that back then?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure, but gemstones required deep openings and the Maya didn’t have the anesthetic drugs we do, so it must have hurt like hell. Not to mention it raised the chances of pulp necrosis and probably periodontitis if not done right, or if the healing went sideways. But there are some new studies showing that the cement used was a complex mixture of natural ingredients that possibly had medicinal benefits like antibacterial and antifungal that helped with healing and long-term dental health.”
“Still, all of that drilling and no anesthesia.” Quint winced. “No, thanks. I’d stick to being out of fashion.”
“Duly noted,” she said, aiming a teasing smile at him. “I’ll add ‘no pretty teeth’ to your list of refusals, along with no bloodletting via a stingray spine to your nether regions.”
Raul glanced Quint’s way. “What does ‘nether regions’ mean?”
Quint smirked at her. “You want to field this question, Dr. García?”
“I will,” Juan said with a cheesy grin as he joined them. As Angélica started to object, he leaned over to Raul and spoke around his hand as if shielding his words from his daughter. “Hispartes privadas.”
“Ah.” Raul grinned. “El pajarito.”
Was that some kind of parrot? Quint’s Spanish was improving, but his vocabulary had its limits.
Juan’s bark of laughter was echoed by the peanut gallery of spider monkeys in the trees nearby. “Yes, hislittlebird.” He patted Quint’s shoulder. “Maybe that should be your new nickname.”
Quint aimed a mock glare at Angélica, whose grin matched her father’s. “Are you going to come to my ego’s rescue at any point here, my fair maiden?”
“I think a clean segue would save the both of us a set of red cheeks.” She held the tooth up in front of Quint’s mouth, closing one eye to look up at it and then him. “The green of the jade bead sort of matches your eyes, Prince Charming. Hubba hubba.”
“A smile-full and he’d be even more handsome,” Juan played along. “You’d probably blind us with your man-beauty when you flashed those pretty green choppers at us.”
“Yeah, but then I’d have the ladies in their loincloth bikinis chasing me through the jungle day and night, and your daughter would get jealous and start threatening me with her pointiest stingray spine.”
She nodded. “Better yet, the sharp side of my machete. I’m the only one allowed to chase you through the jungle, Parker. And you’re the one who has to wear the loincloth.” She held the tooth out for her father to take. “What do you think, Dad?”
“Well, I’ve seen Junior Mint in his skivvies, same as you, so I think he’d make a decent clothing model for a caveman catalog.”
Quint snickered and repeated a quote from one of his dad’s favorite comedians of old, Rodney Dangerfield. “When I was born, I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mother.”
That line drew a laugh from all but KuTu, whose grasp of English wasn’t so great.
“I meant what do you think of the tooth, Dad?”
Juan slid on his reading glasses. “It’s a fancy one, for sure.” He turned the tooth one way and then the other. “I’m guessing they used some kind of pine resin to cement in the stone. I read that mint oils were sometimes used in the mixture, but I doubt we can tell for sure without proper analysis.” He held it up to the bright sky to catch the sunlight. “There aren’t many cracks in the tooth, so based on the wear and size, it most likely belonged to a young adult, possibly early twenties. But again, we’d need to send it off for examination to be certain.” He looked at KuTu over the rims of his glasses. “Were there more than this one tooth?”
“You mean like a whole skull full?” Quint asked, packing away his camera. If so, were the remaining bones of the skeleton waiting for them up ahead, too?
KuTu shook his head slowly. “Es no bueno.”
“What is no good?” Angélica replied in Spanish. A slight frownfurrowed her forehead as she switched her focus from the tooth to KuTu.
The short guard pointed at Juan’s hand. “El diente.”
