More than 1000 teeth were found on the Dee St site where Invercargill Licensing Trust's planned hotel is to be built.
ILT chief executive Chris Ramsay said he had no idea how the teeth got there, other than that a dentist was based there from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century.
''Well, that's the thousand-teeth question ... it was more the practice at the time to pull teeth rather than treat them.''
The odd find was made in late May and on-site archaeologist Amy McStay examined the teeth to find they most likely came from the dentist's surgery.
Chairman of the Invercargill Historical Society Lloyd Esler said he received a few phone calls earlier yesterday from people believing the dentist in question was one Ivon Wilson, a prominent Southland figure who was involved in various projects and initiatives.
According to his obituary in the Southland Times on May 9, 1974, he was born in Dunedin in 1885.
Mr Wilson attended Southland Boys' High School before becoming apprenticed to Invercargill dental surgeon A. E. Smith in 1902.
He became a registered dentist in 1909, and lived in Wellington for a time before moving back to the South, where he practised in Dee St.
He was apparently quite a character.
An article from Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, cited from a biography written by R.J. Cuthill that Mr Wilson was an ''enthusiastic environmentalist, he objected to exotic trees and shrubs being planted around the hotel at Milford Sound and drew attention to damage done to forests by deer, suggesting that North American mountain lions should be introduced to keep the numbers down''.
He started what is now known as the Ivon Wilson Park in Te Anau, having supervised the planting of about 5000 trees.
Mr Wilson was cremated in 1974, at Andersons Bay Crematorium in Dunedin.
''Finding these teeth was certainly one of the more interesting finds,'' Heritage New Zealand Otago-Southland area manager Denise Anderson said.
She said a digger driver noticed teeth emerging from the fill he was removing and alerted Ms McStay.
