Prehistoric Ivory Items from Siberia Examined

KRASNOYARSK, RUSSIA—The Siberian Times reports that Evgeny Artemyev of the Russian Academy of Sciences has examined 12,000-year-old artifacts discovered some 20 years ago at the Afontova Gora-2 archaeological site, which is located on the banks of the Yenisei River in south-central Siberia. The items include objects made from the spongey parts of woolly mammoth bones. “When you look at them at different angles, they resemble different types of animals,” Artemyev said. He suggests these two pieces of bone could look like a bear, a mammoth, or a sleeping person. Other pieces of mammoth tusk are thought to have been softened with an unknown process. “On the items we can see traces of stone implements and the flows of the substance before it stiffened,” he explained. “This means that the tusk was softened significantly, the consistency was viscous.” Artemyev thinks the ivory may have been softened to prepare it for making tools or toys. To read about a CT scan of a 1,700-year-old Tashtyk mummy discovered in Siberia in the late 1960s, go to "Face Off."