Aside from decorative dentistry which they wore in life and carried the grave with them, ranking datus were often buried with items of gold, either in the form of gold burial goods, or as specifically designed funerary art such as death masks.
Burial goods found in graves from early Philippine history includes various beads earrings rings pendants, combs, strips, and other ornaments.
Another gold feature commonly discovered in elite burials from early historic Philippines are death mask artifacts, meant to cover either part or all of the deceased's face in the grave
When this practice was discovered by the Spanish colonizers, they created a rule that a government representative should always be present whenever the Spanish settlers dug up a grave - so that the Spanish government could get its designated 1/5 of the dug up goods.
Burial goods are among the most common surviving gold artifacts in the Philippines because gold which was not buried was typically eventually reforged into other forms as the colonial period proceeded.