[Bonetools] ivory question

[griffitt at email.arizona.edu]

Hi all

I'm forwarding this question from a collegue of mine regarding mammoth ivory.
It's out of my field of expertise, but if anyone has any ideas, I'll be happy
to forward them on to him.

Thanks

Janet

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From: cwidga at gmail.com [mailto:cwidga at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Chris Widga
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 8:51 PM
To: Janet Griffitts
Subject: Ivory microwear?


Hi Janet,


I hope things are well in Tucson--it should be cooling off there soon eh?


I have a question...we've been working on a mammoth from the north St. Louis
area. The animal probably dates to the last glacial max and has an
"interesting" taphonomic history (http://www.prin.edu/mammoth/). We have a
working hypothesis that a shallow injury to the forehead was puncture trauma
caused by another mammoth tusk. In fact, there's a groove in the tusk of our
mammoth, right about where you would expect to find it if it had been involved
in a mammoth battle. Are you aware of any microwear signature of ivory on
ivory? I'm curious... it would be nice if we had some sort of corroboration of
our mammoth battle scenario...



Any thoughts?



Chris


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Janet Griffitts
Visiting Scholar
Dept. of Anthropology,
Tucson,Arizona

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