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Ch. 11: Elephant Tusks

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400 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
mammoth and mastodon ivory we have described was accumulated by a special collector, who obtained the mate­rial from various sources.
It is the even, constant temperature due to being buried in ice or frozen ground that has aided to preserve mammoth ivory. A temperature with but slight variations tends to preserve ivory; it is variation from extreme cold to extreme heat that injures all varieties of this material, and not the action of a constant temperature, either hot or cold. The tusk, lower jaws, vertebral bones, and the shafts of the limb bones of the mammoth and mastodon are generally pre­served in remarkable perfection, but the skulls are usually decayed, being made up of diploic or cancellous bone tissue. As this tissue is filled with air spaces, the skulls often break soon after discovery, although found in perfect condition.
Fragments of fossil ivory thoroughly silicified and im­pregnated with manganese, so as to have acquired a "moss agate" effect, have been found in western Kansas, in the divide between the Smoky Hill River and the Republican River, north of Trego and Buffalo Park. The character­istic ivory structure was clearly apparent in these fossil pieces.*
Although it is doubtful that any records exist of the length of the elephant tusks secured by the hunters of Egyptian or Assyrian times, two tusks, the longer measuring about 1 ft. 5 in. in length, were found by Layard in the North West Palace at Nimroud. Only parts of these tusks have been preserved·!
At an early period the conquering Romans gained access to some of the accumulated ivory treasures of the East. The historian Livy relates that at the triumph celebrated
'Communicated by Prof. S. W. Williston, Dept. of Paleontology, University of Chicago. fLayard, "Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon," London, 1853, Pt. I» p. 195.
Ch. 11: Elephant Tusks Page of 681 Ch. 11: Elephant Tusks
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