MAMMOTH by Richard Stone, in addition to building wonderful suspense by explaining how modern researchers are this close to cloning a mammoth before abruptly ending the book, seems to indicate that most of the world’s ivory comes, or came, from mammoths that defrost in Siberia. Is this accurate? I thought the majority of new ivory came from poaching elephants and walruses (walri?), but he’s got some pictures in the book of fifty sets of tusks lying in a row.
His website is www.frozenmammoth.com. (It’s an okay appendage to a fascinating book, but I want to know how the mammoth cloning is going.)
Walrus are not poached, they’re subsistence hunted in this part of the world by Alaska Natives. The ivory from the tusks is often used as an art medium, but must be signed by the artist in order to be sold. This is not the case with fossilized walrus ivory, which anyone can own, buy or sell. “Found” ivory, such as might be acquired by beachcombing, must be registered with Fish and Wildlife. Mammoth ivory is more abundant than walrus ivory, which came as a surprise to me, and is becoming more and more used as an artistic medium because of that. All of this information comes to me via an Eskimo fella that I work with who is also an artist.
Trade in mammoth ivory is not regulated like elephant or walrus ivory. A lot of the current supply comes from Siberia, but not necessarily from frozen mammoths. Most of it is fossilized from laying for thousands of years in the ground, and has taken on a carmel color from minerals in the soil. The most highly sought after has a bluish color, also from minerals in the soil. Unworked mammoth ivory is easily purchased on eBay.
Certainly, that’s the plan. Aliens landed the mammoths to enslave humans, but were stymied by the cold snap. With global warming, the mammoths are starting to come out of suspended animation, so we have to strike while they’re still vulnerable.
I’m pretty sure I can find a geocities website to back me up on this.
Not all mammoth ivory is suitable for working. A number of environmental factors can damage it. Unless it’s been preserved in certain conditions (like Siberia’s cold), it can be in poor condition, and thus, vitrually worthless.
In the museum in which I work, we have a collection of mammoth tusks which were stored on a shelf for years back before we had climate control. Many of them are now essentially flaking apart and crumbling into dust.