<<>I understand most ivory in medieval Europe was in fact >mammoth tusks
from what is now Belarus, Ukraine and >western Russia.
I didn't know this fact. It shocks me. Mammoth? Really? And the African
elephants? What were they hunted down for, then?>>
Trotsky:
Ivory for use by the Africans? Mind you, widespread use of mammoth ivory is news to me, too - I'd have thought they'd have used walrus or something.>>
I'm not sure where I picked up on the "mammoth ivory in medieval Europe thing" but I _have_ seen a TV documentary about Russian/Ukrainian/ Belarussian archaeologists excavating an entire house made of mammoth ivory. It was somewhere on the steppes where ivory could be found more easily than wood.
Re the walrus - yes I guess so. They certainly had small amounts of Unicorn horn - actually from Narwhals (unless my Zoology lecturers weren't telling me something!)
Richard Crawley
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