Archaeologists Find 13,000-Year-Old Engraved Mammoth Tusk in Siberia

Sci-News.com ^ | September 25, 2020 | Enrico de Lazaro

[SunkenCiv]

The 13,000-year-old partial tusk of an adult mammoth found in western Siberia has four images of two-humped camels engraved on it.

The artifact, which measures about 70 cm (27.6 inches) in length and 10 cm (3.9 inches) in diameter, is a frontal fragment of a 1.5-m- (59-inch-) long tusk from a 35 to 40-year-old male mammoth...

The researchers radiocarbon-dated the artifact to about 13,000 years ago and spotted several incisions on it...

"All four animals (labeled as #1, 2, 3 and 4 in the image above) were executed in the same style, using similar techniques and tools... The main stylistic feature of these images is that they combine the figures' outlines with a series of short transverse cuts on the inner side. In some places, the outline is missing and the short cuts themselves serve as the contour."

"All camels are depicted with only two legs. The lower ends of the foot contours, in most cases, are not connected."

"The camels have patches of thick fur sticking out from the upper parts of their forelegs, bellies, under their necks, at the base of the humps (between the front hump and the neck, the back hump and the croup) and on their foreheads. The heads are all small and angular."

[Red Badger]

I see three Bactrian Camels, and what appears to be part of a horse.....................

[wildbill]

That was a fad that Mamoths went through along with tattooing, typical of ancient body art.

[SunkenCiv]

The scrimshaw culture..