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Mammoth figurine

A mammoth statuette is made on flattened slightly curved ivory blank. A large head is highlighted with a triangle notch and leaned forward. The "mammoth" has a teep nape and a relatively sloping frontal part; a straight line of a back turning into the back part of the legs; short, massive front and hind legs. Obviously, the figurine had a stable position leaning on three points (legs and trunk).

There are traces of red and black pigment on the surface of Mammoth’s sculpture. Black paint covered the animal's body in patches and overlaid the red pigment. It is preserved in separate rare clusters in the areas of recesses and in the pores of the ivory. The paints are of artificial origin (iron content 5%), aluminosilicate additives were used as a binder. Manganese and magnesium were added to the pigment to darken it.


Manufacturing technique

The first stage of manufacturing the item included a general formation of the surface with a knife. A combination of return and translational movements of the knife allowed to treat the blank during its flattening and forming the notches along its contour. The item has some traces of cutting with a linear extent on the surface of more than a centimeter. The using of burins allowed not only to smooth the overall surface of the item, but also to detail the form of individual - significant for the expressiveness of the image of the statuette - elements. Sometimes (while manufacturing the groin zone of the statuette) a planning knife was used. 


Use-wear traces

Traces of polishing are found on the surface of the artifact. The genesis of the polishing can be connected with the complition of the statuette manufacturing process as well as with the features of its use or storage. 

According to the earliest color photographs, the surface of the item was abundantly painted with a reddish-brown pigment that overlapped the black pigment. Obviously, during the storage, the paints have lost their color and are visible to the naked eye in certain areas of the statuette (in the area of the head and legs).


Storage location

The museum of IAAE SB RAS

Inventory number

№239/13

The Museum KAMIS

no

Size

Length - 86 mm

Height - 48-40 mm

Thickness - 23 mm


Material

Ivory

Dating

19-23 th years BP

Culture

Upper Paleolithic

The author of the excavations

Drozdov N. I.
1980

Publications

Vasilyevskiy R. S.. Drozdov N. I. Paleoliticheskiye skulpturnyye izobrazheniya iz Vostochnoy Sibiri // Plastika i risunki drevnikh kultur – Novosibirsk. Nauka. 1983. – S. 59–65.

Volkov P.V., Lbova L.V., Gubar Yu.S., Shvets O. L. 2018. Mammoth figure from Ust-Kova: results of microscopic examination. Bulletin of NSU, ser. History and Philology, Issue Archeology and Ethnography. –  S. 56-66

Lbova L. V., Volkov P. V., Gubar J. S., Drozdov N. I. Mammoth ivory paleoart objects from the upper Paleolithic assemblage of Ust-Kova (eastern Siberia): A technological approach // Archaeological Research in Asia. 2020. Vol. 23. – P. 1–13 


Page authors: L. Lbova