Skeleton of 1,600-year-old woman with jewels in her teeth found

Archaeologists have discovered the skeleton of an upper-class woman whose skull was intentionally deformed and her teeth encrusted with mineral stones. The type of jewels found in her teeth show the woman was foreign to the region, and her skeleton was more deformed than any found before. The body was discovered near Mexico's ancient ruins of Teotihuacan, at a town called San Juan Evangelista. The noble woman, between 35 and 40 years old when she died, was buried with 19 jars that served as offerings.

She was most likely foreign to the central region where she was buried because her skull was elongated by being compressed - a technique commonly used in the southern part of Mesoamerica. She wore a prosthetic lower tooth made of serpentine. The mysterious city of Teotihuacan, some 30 miles (50km) north of Mexico City, thrived between the first and eighth centuries, after which its civilization vanished.