Mammoth Tusks Research Articles

‘Do you know where I can buy ivory?’: The illegal sale of worked ivory products in Hong Kong

Set against the theoretical framework of situational crime prevention theory, this paper analyses the illegal sale of worked ivory products in Hong Kong, which is the city with the highest number of worked ivory products for retail sale in the world. Based on qualitative interviews and open sources, this paper shows that legalising the sale of products made from mammoth tusk and pre-1989 ivory, the low risk of detection, high rewards, justifications made by offenders, and unique situational conditions have collectively (and indirectly) created opportunities for traders to sell worked ivory items illegally in Hong Kong. This paper concludes by offering a discussion on why the illegal sale of ivory products cannot be prevented with situational crime prevention preventive strategies in the long run.

Revising the archaeological record of the Upper Pleistocene Arctic Siberia: Human dispersal and adaptations in MIS 3 and 2

As the main external driver, environmental changes largely predetermine human population distribution, especially in the Arctic, where environmental conditions were often too extreme for human survival. Not that long ago the only evidence of human presence here was the Berelekh site in the lower reaches of the Indighirka River. This landmark dates to 13,000–12,000 years ago but it was widely accepted as documentation of the earliest stage of human dispersal in the Arctic. New research discussed here, shows that humans began colonizing the Siberian Arctic at least by the end of the early stage of MIS 3 at around 45,000 years ago. For now, this earliest known stage of human occupation in the arctic regions is documented by the evidence of human hunting. The archaeological record of continued human occupation is fragmentary; nevertheless, evidence exists for each significant phase including the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Siberian Arctic human populations were likely supported by the local mammoth population, which provided humans with food and raw material in the form of mammoth tusks. Processing of mammoth ivory is recognized widely as one of the most important peculiarities of the material culture of ancient humans. In fact, ivory tool manufacturing is one of the most important innovations of the Upper Palaeolithic in northern Eurasia. Technology that allowed manufacturing of long ivory shafts – long points and full-size spears – was critical in the tree-less open landscapes of Eurasian mammoth steppe belt. These technological skills reach their greatest extent and development shortly before the Last Glacial Maximum but are recognizable until the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary across Northern Eurasia in all areas populated by mammoths and humans. Loss of this stable source of raw material due to the late Pleistocene mammoth extinction may have provoked a shift in post-LGM Siberia to the Beringian microblade tradition. This paper reviews the most important archaeological findings made in arctic Siberia over the last twenty years.

Voice and Instrument at the Origins of Music

During the summer of 2008, archaeologists uncovered some remnants of musical prehistory in the caves of Hohle Fels, Germany. There, among burnt animal bones and flint-knapping debris, they found fragments of three flutes (Conard, Malina, and Munzel 2009). One was remarkably complete. This delicate instrument, discovered in twelve pieces, had been fashioned from a vultures wing bone. It was thirty-four centimeters long (roughly the length of a piccolo), with several finger holes and a notched mouthpiece (like the Japanese shakuhachi and other end-blown flutes; see Figure 1). The other flutes at the site were less complete but represented more complex manufacturing. They were made from pieces of mammoth tusk that had been split, hollowed out, and then rejoined. Yet headlines about the Hohle Fels flutes focused on neither their present condition nor their refined construction. Instead journalists and scholars emphasized the artifacts' age. These flutes were more than thirty-five thousand years old--the earliest musical instruments then known. (1) Incidentally, one of the earliest examples of figurative art, an ivory sculpture called the "Venus of Hohle Fels," was found less than a meter away from the bone flute (Conard 2009). Together these artifacts give compelling evidence for musical and artistic practices in the Upper Paleolithic Era. Writing and the wheel, by contrast, would not appear until almost thirty thousand years later, during the early Bronze Age (that is, around the fourth millennium BCE). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Of course, such evidence is always incomplete, and these instruments reveal only traces of Paleolithic music making. Their sounds and social functions have not been preserved. They are tokens of a culture that can be reconstructed only provisionally, through a kind of principled speculation. For example, given the flutes' technological sophistication, it is unlikely that they are the first instruments of their kind. Earlier specimens have surely been lost, presumably including instruments made from less durable materials. Indeed, a multidisciplinary review of archaeological evidence for the emergence of music, language, and symbolic behavior concludes that such instruments must, even at around 35,000 years, be several conceptual stages removed from the earliest origins, even of instrumental musical expression, to say nothing of those universal vocal, manual-percussive and dance forms which must have existed independently of--and before--any need for such tools. (d'Errico et al. 2003, 46) "And before." With this aside, the review's twelve coauthors suggest that musicality originated with the body alone, that instrumental play came after singing. This claim is ubiquitous in writings on music and human evolution. Ian Cross (2007, 663), for example, argues that "the use of musical artifacts will have been preceded by the expression of musical capacities by voice and body." The idea has a long history. Charles Darwin himself wrote, "With man song is generally admitted to be the basis or origin of instrumental music" (1871, 2:333). But this idea already appears in the eighteenth century in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's reflections on human and musical origins. This essay critically examines claims for the precedence of voice in musical prehistory, juxtaposing Rousseau and twenty-first-century authors. Though centered on music and evolution, this investigation more generally explores voice-instrument relations and their implications for a philosophy of musical technology--or, more precisely, musical "technics." The term "technics" refers to technical matters in the broadest sense. It is an English equivalent to the German "Technik" or the French "la technique" which, depending on context, may be translated as either "technique" or "technology." Lewis Mumford's (1934) Technics and Civilization, for example, explores the interplay of technology and technique, bringing out continuities between hand tools and machines. …

The latest steppe mammoths (Mammuthus trogontherii (Pohlig)) and associated fauna on the Late Middle Pleistocene steppe at Nosak, Kostolac Basin, Northeastern Serbia

In 2012, bones and tusks of mammoths and remains of other large mammals scattered in a line 130 m long have been discovered in the loess deposits at the Nosak mound in the Kostolac Basin (Northeastern Serbia). Preliminary analyses indicate that remains come from Mammuthus trogontherii, Equus ferus mosbachensis and Cervidae indet. Steppe mammoth remains originate from at least four individuals, three adults, and one juvenile. They include the largest steppe mammoth tusks ever reported. The mammalian remains were mostly found disarticulated, except for few articulated skeleton elements. Individual bones and teeth were encased within thick carbonate concretions. From their composition, morphology, and manner of formation, these carbonate concretions resemble the characteristic “loess dolls” that form in loess. Bones were exposed to subaerial weathering for some time before burial. Some damage on the bones indicates biogenic agents of their fragmentation and dispersal. Animals were probably attracted to the spot by a water source in the vicinity, such as a spring or intermittent stream. The bones and teeth accumulated at a single level within the loess likely deposited in MIS 6, just above the upper of two paleosols formed during MIS 7. A sample from a mammoth molar plate has been ESR dated at 192 ± 5 ka, correlating with the very early MIS 6, near the MIS 6/7 boundary. This makes the Nosak mammoth the most recent occurrence of steppe mammoths in Europe, and the sole find dated to MIS 6.

From stone flaking to grinding: Three original Pavlovian antler tools from Moravia (Pavlov I, Czech Republic)

This paper is devoted to the detailed study of three unusual objects discovered in a Pavlovian context (27,500–25,000 BP) at the eponymous site (Pavlov I) which is a large open-air occupation in southern Moravia, and where a large number of spectacular bone tools were recovered. Although stone flaking is a well-known and common activity for the Palaeolithic human groups, antler billets related to this activity are still very rare. Any new discoveries in this domain thus deserve precise documentation. The soft hammer presented here is especially interesting because it is a rare case of a complete billet, well preserved, and it is also the first example which can be related to a left-handed person. The two other antler tools analyzed here appear to have been associated with activities that are poorly known in association with bone tools, such as the grinding/crushing of vegetal and mineral materials (fibers, colorants, etc.). Although such massive tools made from mammoth tusks are already known during the Upper Palaeolithic (but still poorly documented), the existence of such tools made of antler is exceptionally mentioned. This paper presents a description of their manufacturing chaîne opératoire and their specific functional usewear. The objective of this study is primarily methodological, to contribute to a better technical and functional characterization of these special antler tools. These data will also be compared with the remainder of the material culture in order to discuss the interaction between the exploitation of stone and organic resources, and the activities that took place at Pavlov I.

Předmostí III : un site pavlovien de la Porte de Moravie (République tchèque, Europe centrale)

The complex of sites of Předmostí is one of the most famous in the Central Europe. The site Předmostí III has been excavated several times during the last thirty years. This article focuses on the materials discovered in 1982 and 1983. The lithic industry has been knapped in situ on radiolarite river pebbles. The association of a Kostenki’ knife with geometric microlith indicates a cultural attribution to the Pavlovian and more particularly to the kind described as the “group with geometric microliths”. Blades and bladelets are mainly produced with an organic hammer. This fact could fit with the discover of a piece of mammoth tusk with percussion marks on its the distal end that could have been used as a hammer. In spite of the small number of artefacts preserved, the reassessment of that collection contributes to a better understanding of the Pavlovian industries.

Investigation of the mineralization process of biosystems by IR diffuse reflection spectroscopy methods

Particular features of the application of Fourier-transform IR diffuse reflection spectroscopy methods to the in situ investigation of spectra of porous rough objects have been considered. The reciprocal influence of the scattering and absorption of porous objects on the formation of the impurity-band contour in the diffuse reflection spectrum when the impurity center is in the vicinity of the fundamental IR absorption band has been analyzed. Using methods of Fourier-transform IR diffuse reflection spectroscopy, processes of mineralization of fragments of mammoth tusks from a multilayer paleolithic site at Yudinovo (Bryansk oblast, Russia) and fragments of mammoth tusks from Yakutia (Russia) have been investigated. Particular features of mineralization processes (carbonate formation and silicification) on the surface and in the volume of objects at different conditions of their burial (humidity, temperature, soil acidity) have been studied.

Voice and Instrument at the Origins of Music

During summer of 2008, archaeologists uncovered some remnants of musical prehistory in caves of Hohle Germany. There, among burnt animal bones and flint-knapping debris, they found fragments of three flutes (Conard, Malina, and Munzel 2009). One was remarkably complete. This delicate instrument, discovered in twelve pieces, had been fashioned from a vultures wing bone. It was thirty-four centimeters long (roughly length of a piccolo), with several finger holes and a notched mouthpiece (like Japanese shakuhachi and other end-blown flutes; see Figure 1). The other flutes at site were less complete but represented more complex manufacturing. They were made from pieces of mammoth tusk that had been split, hollowed out, and then rejoined. Yet headlines about Hohle Fels flutes focused on neither their present condition nor their refined construction. Instead journalists and scholars emphasized artifacts' age. These flutes were more than thirty-five thousand years old--the earliest musical instruments then known. (1) Incidentally, one of earliest examples of figurative art, an ivory sculpture called Venus of Hohle Fels, was found less than a meter away from bone flute (Conard 2009). Together these artifacts give compelling evidence for musical and artistic practices in Upper Paleolithic Era. Writing and wheel, by contrast, would not appear until almost thirty thousand years later, during early Bronze Age (that is, around fourth millennium BCE). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Of course, such evidence is always incomplete, and these instruments reveal only traces of Paleolithic making. Their sounds and social functions have not been preserved. They are tokens of a culture that can be reconstructed only provisionally, through a kind of principled speculation. For example, given flutes' technological sophistication, it is unlikely that they are first instruments of their kind. Earlier specimens have surely been lost, presumably including instruments made from less durable materials. Indeed, a multidisciplinary review of archaeological evidence for emergence of music, language, and symbolic behavior concludes that such instruments must, even at around 35,000 years, be several conceptual stages removed from earliest origins, even of instrumental musical expression, to say nothing of those universal vocal, manual-percussive and dance forms which must have existed independently of--and before--any need for such tools. (d'Errico et al. 2003, 46) And before. this aside, review's twelve coauthors suggest that musicality originated with body alone, that instrumental play came after singing. This claim is ubiquitous in writings on and human evolution. Ian Cross (2007, 663), for example, argues that the use of musical artifacts will have been preceded by expression of musical capacities by voice and body. The idea has a long history. Charles Darwin himself wrote, With man song is generally admitted to be basis or origin of instrumental music (1871, 2:333). But this idea already appears in eighteenth century in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's reflections on human and musical origins. This essay critically examines claims for precedence of voice in musical prehistory, juxtaposing Rousseau and twenty-first-century authors. Though centered on and evolution, this investigation more generally explores voice-instrument relations and their implications for a philosophy of musical technology--or, more precisely, musical technics. The term technics refers to technical matters in broadest sense. It is an English equivalent to German Technik or French la which, depending on context, may be translated as either technique or technology. Lewis Mumford's (1934) Technics and Civilization, for example, explores interplay of technology and technique, bringing out continuities between hand tools and machines. …

Particular features of the application of IR reflection spectroscopy methods in studies in archeology and paleontology

We have considered an optical model of a porous rough surface with optical properties of objects (bone, flint) that are typical of archeology and paleontology. We have formulated an approach that makes it possible to perform mathematical processing of the IR reflection spectra of objects of this kind using standard algorithms and determine criteria that ensure obtaining reliable information on objects with a rough surface in the course of interpretation of frequencies in their IR reflection spectra. The potential of the approach has been demonstrated using as an example an investigation by the IR Fourier-transform reflection spectroscopy of mineralization processes of mammoth tusks from two paleolithic sites (14000 and 16000 BCE) located by the town of Yudinovo, Bryansk oblast, Russia.

Characterization of Elephant and Mammoth Ivory by Solid State NMR

Ivory has always been considered one of the most attractive and valuable biological gem materials. It is tooth dentin, or the yellowish white, calcified, extremely elastic tissue that forms the tusks of several mammalian species. Microscopic examination of the surface in all possible directions is needed to a successful identification of cut and polished samples of ivory, but sometimes it is not enough. Supplemental techniques should be used for assisting discrimination of elephant (both Loxodonta africana and Elephas maximus ) ivory and wholly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius ) ivory, because from a textural standpoint they can be remarkably similar. To provide the key identifying features of these two types of ivory is nowadays of special significance, due to the fact that elephant ivory trade and import and export are illegal, whereas wholly mammoth tusks may be legally exported and manufactured. Both materials are formed primarily from nanocrystals of biological calcium orthophosphate that are embedded in a type I collagen matrix. By exploiting 1 H, 13 C and 31 P magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR we investigated the composition of several elephant and mammoth ivory specimens. 13 C MAS NMR spectra confirmed the presence of the CO 3 2- group associated to the carbonated hydroxyapatite in both ivory types. In the collagen structure no differences have been highlighted. Quantitative 31 P MAS NMR spectra revealed important features about the inorganic matrix. The high resolution allowed us to achieve the simultaneous detection of the signal assigned to the bulk PO 4 3- groups of the hydroxyapatite phase and of minor side peaks ascribed to unprotonated surface sites PO x (PO, PO 2 - and PO 3 2- ) and to protonated sites PO x H on the surface of the nano-sized crystals of the hydroxyapatite.

What can 100-year-old animal specimens from our museum collection tell us about present-day ecosystems?

Navigating the backroom corridors and quiet offices of the Royal College of Surgeons, you stumble upon the museum stores – fascinating rooms that house row upon row of portraits of past presidents, bottled specimens and the skulls of a range of wild and exotic animals, piled high. There is something irresistibly curious about the anatomy, pathology and dental collections, where three perfectly preserved hummingbirds sit alongside the skull of a lion with an advanced tumour and part of a mammoth's tusk. While the Hunterian Museum is well known for attracting families, tourists and artists, and the Wellcome Museum of Anatomy of Pathology is a well-used study and teaching resource, the work that goes on behind the scenes that involves curators assisting with external academic research across a variety of fields is little recognised.

Middle Solutrean engraved bone artefacts from Rochefort Cave (Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve, Mayenne, France)

Within the Solutrean portable corpus gathered from Rochefort cave, a series of twenty-five items was isolated. It is mainly made up of herbivore ribs but also of fragments of long bones and ivory that are showing different types of incisions. Their lay out does not indicate simple grooves related to butchering activities. Remarkable items such as an entire brown bear rib or a fragment of mammoth tusk are part of this series of incised pieces. These symbolic engraved decorations are known for the Solutrean period but the imprecise chronostratigraphic contexts of most of the older collections make them unreliable items of reference. As the search for comparisons has not really been fruitful, the Rochefort cave corpus singles out by the quantity and quality of the objects that have been inventoried.

Man and Environment in the Late Pleistocene - Early Holocene of Central Mediterranean Basin (an example from Sicily)

As the main external driver, environmental changes largely predetermine human population distribution, especially in the Arctic, where environmental conditions were often too extreme for human survival. Not that long ago the only evidence of human presence here was the Berelekh site in the lower reaches of the Indighirka River. This landmark dates to 13,000–12,000 years ago but it was widely accepted as documentation of the earliest stage of human dispersal in the Arctic. New research discussed here, shows that humans began colonizing the Siberian Arctic at least by the end of the early stage of MIS 3 at around 45,000 years ago. For now, this earliest known stage of human occupation in the arctic regions is documented by the evidence of human hunting. The archaeological record of continued human occupation is fragmentary; nevertheless, evidence exists for each significant phase including the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Siberian Arctic human populations were likely supported by the local mammoth population, which provided humans with food and raw material in the form of mammoth tusks. Processing of mammoth ivory is recognized widely as one of the most important peculiarities of the material culture of ancient humans. In fact, ivory tool manufacturing is one of the most important innovations of the Upper Palaeolithic in northern Eurasia. Technology that allowed manufacturing of long ivory shafts – long points and full-size spears – was critical in the tree-less open landscapes of Eurasian mammoth steppe belt. These technological skills reach their greatest extent and development shortly before the Last Glacial Maximum but are recognizable until the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary across Northern Eurasia in all areas populated by mammoths and humans. Loss of this stable source of raw material due to the late Pleistocene mammoth extinction may have provoked a shift in post-LGM Siberia to the Beringian microblade tradition. This paper reviews the most important archaeological findings made in arctic Siberia over the last twenty years.

The oldest art of the Eurasian Arctic: personal ornaments and symbolic objects from Yana RHS, Arctic Siberia

The excavated site termed Yana RHS is dated to about 28000 BP and contained a stunning assemblage of ornamented and symbolic objects—the earliest art to be excavated in the Arctic zone. Decorated beads, pendants and needles connect the site to the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic; but other forms and ornaments are unparalleled. Shallow dishes and anthropomorphic designs on mammoth tusks find echoes among hunting practice and shamanistic images of the indigenous Yukaghir people recorded in the early twentieth century.

The flickering genes of the last mammoths

Woolly mammoths, Mammuthus primigenius, are arguably the most iconic of the extinct Pleistocene megafauna, and an abundance of large permafrost-embedded bone and ivory material (Fig. 1) means they were also among the first to yield credible DNA sequences (Hagelberg et al. 1994; Hoss et al. 1994). Despite mammoth remains being numerous throughout northern Eurasia and North America, both the earliest and most recent fossils are found in northeast Siberia, with the last known population being confined to Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean from around 10,000 years ago until their extinction around 4,000 years ago. The extent to which these Holocene mammoths were descended from the Pleistocene populations of Wrangel Island and the demographic nature of their terminal decline have, until now, remained something of a mystery. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Nyström et al. (2012) report the first use of autosomal variation to track the decline of the last mammoths and, in doing so, take a significant step towards resolving these questions. The authors genotyped four microsatellite loci in 59 Pleistocene and Holocene mammoths from Wrangel Island and Chukotka in mainland northeastern Siberia and showed that while the Pleistocene-to-Holocene transition is associated with a significant reduction in genetic diversity, subsequent levels of variation remain constant until extinction. Such a pattern is somewhat surprising as it indicates that while the last mammoths were confined to only a few Arctic islands, their final extinction on Wrangel Island was not a gradual process resulting from loss of genetic diversity/inbreeding. Instead, it seems they maintained a viable effective population size of around 500 until near their presumably rapid extinction. While the ultimate agent of mammoth extinction remains unknown, the work of Nyström et al. (2012). suggests that we should be looking for something sudden, like a rapid change in climate/ecology or perhaps the arrival of humans.

New ivory worries

The ban on the trade in ivory is under new threat from an unusual source: ancient ivory from woolly mammoths. The bodies of thousands of mammoths have been found preserved in the frozen Siberian tundra, and the ivory tusks are the best preserved feature of them all. But the trade in ivory from the ancient tusks is now thought to be a risk for the future of African elephants, conservationists fear. One report suggests that as much as 60 tonnes of Siberian mammoth tusks are being exported from Russia every year, mostly to China, where they end up in the workshops of its flourishing ivory-carve trade, being turned into brooches, pendants, figurines and thousands of other ivory objects. Conservationists are concerned that this legal trade could be used as a front for the laundering of illegally poached elephant ivory, thereby fuelling the killing of elephants. The trade in African elephant ivory was outlawed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in 1989, to halt the steep decline in elephant numbers. “Wild elephant populations were decimated by the ivory trade. By the time the 1989 Cites ban came into force, Africa's elephants had been reduced by more than 50 per cent,” says Mark Jones, programmes director at Care for the Wild, an international wildlife charity which commissioned the mammoth ivory report. “Poaching continues to threaten wild elephants. Anything that encourages the continued demand for ivory products, whether mammoth ivory or elephant ivory, could possibly exacerbate this threat.” The report was carried out by Edmond and Chrysee Martin, and paints a picture of a valuable business in extinct animals — worth more than $20 million per year. Their report points out that trade in woolly mammoth ivory has been going on between Russia and the rest of Asia for many years, but declined sharply in the communist years from 1917 to 1991.

Mugabe’s Dilemma: Zimbabwe and Land Reform at Independence and Beyond

After 90 years of white domination, the promise of independence meant freedom at last for Zimbabweans. Many had lost their land in the interim, lost their sons, lost their livelihoods not even to mention the hopelessness embedded in being colonized. Expectations were high as was the pressure to deliver on the young leader Mugabe, in 1980, at independence. This article seeks to trace and explain the trajectory of the land reform processes in Zimbabwe from independence and beyond. The central thrust of the paper being to explain the diverse difficulties Mugabe and the new government faced. To explain the mammoth tusk the nascent democracy had, the researcher carried out interviews with people who fought in the liberation struggle (Second Chimurenga), ordinary citizens as well as farmers in different parts of Zimbabwe.

Le mobilier magdalénien en matières dures d’origine animale du site de Wilczyce 10 (district de Sandomierz, Pologne)

The Wilczyce site in southern Poland, on the Sandomierz plateau overlooking the Opatowka river valley, was discovered during a field survey conducted in 1994 as part of the Archaeological Map of Poland project. The archaeological material discovered justified a survey to determine the zone of the planned excavation. Systematic work carried out since 1998, first by Dr Fiedorczuk and after his death by Prof. Schild, has yielded a quantity of lithic and bone artefacts, art objects, and the bones of consumed animals, distributed within an ice wedge. The Magdalenian bone inventory consists of 54 artefacts : 3 bone figurines, 12 points, 2 intermediate tools, 2 smoothers, 1 chisel, 1 scoop-smoother, 2 awls, 1 baton, 2 handles, 24 needles, 1 plaque and 3 unidentified objects. They were all made of reindeer antler, mammoth tusk and bone. Among the most exceptional finds are points with a concave-convex section, obtained by scraping the antler (elimination of the spongy tissue) until compact bone was reached. They are fairly rare in the bone inventory of the Magdalenian culture. The typological analysis of the bone and flint artefacts from Wilczyce allows the site to be attributed to a Magdalenian occupation during the Upper Palaeolithic. According to the 14 C results the Wilczyce site fits within the upper horizon of the Magdalenian, which seems to confirm the theory that Magdalenian sites in central and eastern Europe belong for the most part to the upper and terminal phases of this culture.

The ancient cultural framework of astronomy in Ukraine

AbstractWe describe and discuss most interesting archaeological findings related to old astronomy in Ukraine. Among them are the mammoth tusk fragments (Gontsy and Kiev-Kirilivska settlements) and the famous Mezin bracelets (Mezin settlement), where possible calendar patterns based on the lunar cycles are engraved with fine accuracy, as well as a possible stellar map on the mammoth shoulder bone (Chocurcha-2 settlement).

Impacts, mega-tsunami, and other extraordinary claims

Impacts, mega-tsunami, and other extraordinary claims