Ivory walrus

Related Materials. Table II gives the results of elemental analyses for bone, ivory, and related specimens. The mastadon, mammoth, and ancient walrus sample analyses indicated retained proteinaceous matter in composition equivalent to that for modern elephant ivory. This suggests that these materials would not provide a ready source of aged ivory for a modem carver seeking to duplicate the texture and composition of ivory buried for well over 2,000 years. 

Ivory is a bonelike material that comes from the tusks of animals (elephant, walrus, hippopotamus). It has become such a highly prized material that there are unscrupulous poachers who kill these animals in order to steal their tusks. The pale cream color of new ivory becomes darker with age and turns yellow. Ivory is brittle, but it does not peel as do its plastic substitutes. 

Ivory is most commonly thought of as coming from elephants, but the teeth or tusks from walruses, hippopotamuses, marine whales and dolphins, and members of the swine family such as wild boar and warthogs have also been used. 

Di nosdc for walrus ivory is that it is the only ivory to contain primary and secondary dentine. The former displays very finely packed, concentric lines and makes up the bulk of the tusk. The latter has a bubbly appearance like that of tapioca or rice pudding (Figs 3.3 and 3.16). It fills the centre of the tusk all the way through from the tip to a small pulp cavity in the part of the tusk attached to the jawbone. This secondary dentine looks more fragile than the primary dentine, but it has the same hardness, and the material can be carved and polished with Htde regard to the difGerent textures (Fig. 3.3). 

It is also found and sold in fossilised form and can retain its creamy colour, though it usually appears a pale brown shade, especially around the edges (Fig. 3.16). It is found in the permafrost of Alaska and Siberia and is - like the mammoth ivory that is also found in those areas - frozen rather than mineralised. Fossilised walrus ivory takes an excellent polish, but is mostly carved as a curiosity. 

Walruses in Siberia are hunted for their meat, which is used to feed farmed foxes bred for their fur, but there is a ban on the sale of the ivory. The Inuit of North America and Greenland are allowed to hunt a quota of walruses as their cultural right. They eat the meat, use the skin as a strong and durable leather, and are permitted by licence to carve and sell the ivory. 

Walrus ivory was much used in medieval times when elephant ivory was difficult to obtain. It is therefore common to find old ivories carved from walrus tusk in churches and in museum collections. 

Bone is the most common simulant of ivory. In smaU items or as inlay it can be difBcult to tell which material has been used as both bone and ivory appear much the same colour and have many similar properties. However, bone contains none of the structural patterns of ivories, for example the engine turned pattern of elephant and mammoth ivory or the tapioca pattern of the secondary dentine in walrus ivory. Instead it has the black dots or lines of the Haversian canals (nutrient bearing canals) (Figs 4.2 and 4.3). 

The diagnostic for certain ivories is their structural patterns, for example the engine turning pattern in elephant or mammoth ivory, the tapioca pudding look of the secondary dentine in walrus ivory, the diagonal pattern on narwhal ivory and the concentric lines and dark central spot of sperm whale ivory (F 3.4 and 3.12-3.17). In larger carvii or objects, the curvature of a tusk may be detectable. Examination of the structural pattern is needed to determine which type of tusk has been used. 

Most Arctic ivory is covered by a ban on hunting, yet the Inuit in Alaska and Greenland are allowed to catch a quota of walrus - which is at present listed on CITES Appendix II - each year as part of their cultural rights. The raw ivory can be used, worked and sold only by local people, and only under strict control. This rule makes it possible to buy walrus ivory items legally in America. It is also possible to buy walrus ivory in Denmark (as Greenland is a protectorate of that country), where it has been imported with full CITES documentation. Exporting the material from these countries, however, may not be permitted, and would require further documentation. 

Arctic ivory has always been looked upon by the local communities in parts of Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Siberia as more of a useful commodity, to be fashioned into utensils and weapons and even used as building materials. Three thousand years ago the Ancient Inuit used mostly walrus ivory, as walruses were much easier to catch than whales. Walrus ivory was also more plentiful than wood. The walrus was altogether an immensely useful animal, as it supplied meat, oil for heating from its blubber, hide for clothes or roofe, bone and ivory. It was only in the twentieth century, with the advent of more sophisticated hunting methods, that whale ivory became as much used as walrus ivory. 

The Inuit customs have continued through the centuries, until quite recently. Some walrus ivory carvings are still being made, as a byproduct of the permitted hunting quota that is part of the Inuit cultural heritage. The carvings are usually small animal figures or jewellery. Nowadays these items are mostly made for export. 

Bone hicks the typical id itifymg features of ivozy, such as elephant ivozy s engine tuming, walrus ivory s secondary dentine, or concentric lines in the dentine. 

Figure 13 FT-Raman spectra of true ivory 1064-nm excitation, 500 spectral scans accumulated, 4-cm spectral resolution (a) sperm whale ivory, (b) elephant ivory, and (c) walrus ivory. 

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