|
|
|
The Human Tooth
Early in November of 1926, archaeologist J.C.F. Siegfriedt made a discovery in another mine. This one in the Number Three shafts of the Mutual Coal Mine in Bear Creek 55 miles Southwest of Billings, Montana. What Siegfriedt found was a human tooth, in which the enamel had been replaced by carbon and the roots by iron by seepage petrifaction. In an account published in the Carbon County News and dated November 11, 1926, Siegfriedt reported that he had meticulously preserved the mineral matrix that had been deposited around the tooth and several dentists identified the mould created as being a human second lower molar. The tooth however came from the lower level of the mine. This came from an Eocene deposit dated at 30 million years old. Siegfriedt could generate no interest in his find among other specialists and as far as we know, no one has done any further investigation of the mystery.