TED Case Studies: Mammoths and Ivory Trade
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I. Identification
The Tool Revolution, which occurred about 20,000 year ago,
drastically changed human subsistence patterns. It was in this
period that a true and efficient hunter-gatherer lifestyle emerged.
Earlier anatomical moderns in Africa and their Neanderthal
contemporaries in Europe did not seem to realize that bone, antler,
ivory and related substances could be carved, polished, or
otherwise shaped into formal artifacts that archaeologists call
"point", "awls", "needles" and the like.(1) These tools were used
for a variety of purposes, especially in making clothing and
hunting.
Along with the Tool Conjunction came increased trade. It is widely
known that trade had taken place between societies for nearly as
long as there have been human beings. However, during this period
trade drastically increased drastically. Anthropologists
excavating archaeological sites in the Lascaux caves in France,
which date back at least 20,000 years, have discovered large
quantities of handcrafts made of sea shells. Since the site on the
edge of the Massif Central part of France (near Limoges) is
hundreds of miles from the ocean, the researchers concluded that
this inland people traded with a people who lived on the coast,
probably off the Bay of Biscay.(2) What did they barter in return?
It is possible that the inland peoples traded furs from indigenous
animals with the coastal peoples.
Most early trade in modern societies was, in fact, perhaps not for
economic gain, but for cultural reasons. The sea shells from the
Lascaux caves served no purpose that advanced the survival of the
people. They were simply worn for adornment, usually indicating a
place of status in the society. As noted, there was a large trade
in mammoth ivory. The ivory was used to carve figurines
(goddesses) most likely as part of some religious ritual. These
figurines carved out of mammoth ivory are found at many sites all
over Europe dating from the same period, many far from the actual
areas where the mammoths lived. Trade in mammoth ivory probably
involved the spread of the religious practice, in the same way that
Arab spices spread Islam. Pastoralists are traders by necessity.
They live in semi-arid areas that cannot support grain crops and
most move their herds and flocks incessantly. Grains are
especially needed, in exchange for animal hides. Pastoralists,
however, can use this trading position to great purpose, as in the
case of the Mongols and Arabs.(3) The trade probably also
contributed to the demise of the wooly mammoth, an ironic
distinction to today's demise of the elephant. There are other
examples of ancient trade with a strong culture component,
including amber.
"One of the most powerful stimuli of commercial relations between northern and southern Europe was the desire of the southern populations to secure amber, a material confined to the Baltic region and occurring particularly about the Jutland and the mouth of the Vistula. Amber beads have been found in Swiss pile- dwellings but also in Mycenean graves of the second millennium B.C."(4)
The first human inhabitants of the North American continent came to the Arctic region about 50,000 B.C., although estimates of this date vary. Humans were able to make this trek due to an Ice Age, which lowered sea levels and created land bridges between the Eurasian and American continents, although crossings probably occurred in earlier and later years as well. This was about the time that a fundamental change in culture and technology occurred in human beings on the Eurasian continent. New tool technologies were brought to the New World by the migrating peoples.
About 11,000 years ago there were severe changes and fluctuations
in large mammal populations in many parts of the world. In
Eurasia, the wooly mammoth, wooly rhinoceros, and the giant or
Irish elk, among other species, became extinct during these
fluctuations. North American fauna was particularly devastated in
this time and eight large mammal species became extinct. This
coincided with the introduction of Paleoindians to the Americas
from Asia.(6)
Another source places the climate chanmge event slightly earlier in
time: "about 13,000 years ago, a global warming trend signaled the
beginning of the terminal phase of the last ice age."(7) In this
period, 32 genera of New World Animals became extinct by 7,000 BC,
including horses, giant bison, oxen, elephants, camels, antelope,
pig, ground sloths, an giant rodents.(8)
Many debate the degree of the human contribution to mega-fauna
extinction in North America and elsewhere. Some believe that the
extinctions are largely the result of non-human causes arguing that
"climatic and environmental change was probably far more important
to the extinctions."(9) New evidence, indicates, for example, that
the most recent glacial retreat was climatically unique or that
many prominent North American genera became extinct before people
arrived. In Australia, the archaeological and fossil record
suggests some striking parallels and differences with North
America. The major difference to North America is that both the
colonization of Australia and the extinctions may have occurred
much earlier, perhaps as early as 45,000 years ago.(10)
The first human arrivals in North America were wooly mammoth
hunters, whose annual hunts were the most important events in their
lives.(11) Archaeological finds indicate their fixation on the
mammoth in painting and in sculpture. Rituals consistently
included reference to the mammoth because the people depended on it
not only for food, but for clothing, ivory for use in rituals, and
even tent shelters made from their hides and bones. Additionally,
warmth inside the tent was provided by burning the animal's dung.
The mammoth hunters thrived. They were successful in hunting with
efficient weaponry and developed a highly-effective social
organization to kill the mammoths. The hunt not only met survival
needs, but also served as a symbolic ritual and an initiation rite
for young hunters. The hunters were so skillful that, by 20,000
B.C., the wooly mammoth became largely extinct in North America.
Although the warming climatic conditions were partly responsible
for the mammoth extinction, it is thought that human hunting
hastened its demise by thousands of years.(12)
There is little evidence to support this progression of events, on
indicator may be the tusk of the wooly mammoth. The tusk of the
elephant show stages of life, much as rings of a tree describe the
trees life. Paleontologist Daniel Fisher contends that mammoth and
mastodon archaeological findings around the Great Lakes region of
North America show the presence of intense human hunting pressure.
Analysis of the tusk rings show that the animals ate properly and
show no signs of a great climatic shift in their diets. The tusks
also show normal gestation periods of four years for the mammoth,
similar to elephants of today.(13)
II. Legal
Clusters III. Geographic
Clustersa. Geographic Domain: Europe
b. Geographic Site: Northern Europe
c. Geographic Impact: Many
IV. Trade
Clustersa. Directly Related to Product: Yes, Food
b. Indirectly Related to Product: Yes, Ivory
c. Not Related to Product: No
d. Related to Process: Yes, Species Loss Land
The recent slaughter of the world's elephant populations for ivory is
reminiscent of the much earlier demise of the wooly mammoth. Ivory trade
in modern times has decimated most of the world's elephant populations,
especially those in Africa. Elephant protection has succeeded in some
places, which has prompted calls for a resumption of elephant ivory trade.
Import enforcement is a problem even in developed countries. While
the Lacey Act and Endangered Species Act in the United States
prohibited the importation of illegal ivory, it is very difficult
to determine the difference between legal and illegal wildlife
trade. During "1984, the United States imported approximately 7.5
tons of raw ivory, three-quarters of which reportedly came from
Zaire, at a time when all commercial ivory exports from that
country were banned."(14) Over 90 percent of ivory seized by U.S.
customs officials was, in fact, mammoth ivory.
Many of these ivory carvings were not simply adornments but actually
tools. In the far north of North America, of course there were no trees from
which to make tools. Thus, ivory finds have included "harpoon heads,
drills, picks, adzes, knives, scrapers, needle case, and ivory runners for
hand drawn-sleds."(15)
The Thule culture originated in Alaska along the Beaufort Sea and focused
on whale hunting. About 800 ad Thules and their culture spread eastward,
eventually going all the way to Greenland. Thule culture dominanted Inuit
culture until contact with European peoples and technology. In many ways,
Thule culture was similar to the culture of the mammoth hunters. Instead
of mammoth bone use in Tool Conjunction dwellings, Thule shelters were
held up by whale rib and were also probably partly subterranean.
The North American ivory was used to trade with Europeans whalers who
entered the areas, mostly small mementos. Thus, a carving industry
developed around the Bering Sea. In the late 18th century ivory was
traded in huge quantities in products ranging from handles for canes,
mirrors, drawers, buttons, pastry wheels, sewing implements, musical
instruments, billiard and cue balls.
V. Environment
Clusters"At the very end of the Upper Paleolithic period, the grassland game herds of bison, horse, cattle, mammoth, and reindeer allowed a great efflorescence, then suddenly began to decline under the combined pressures of human overkill and rapid environmental fluctuations ending with the spread of Boreal forests at the Pleistocene-Recent transition from about 12,000 to 7500 B.C."(17)Marvin Harris places this subsistence shift around the same time.
"By 10,000 B.P. much of the so-called Pleistocene megafauna had become extinct in Europe. Upper Paleolithic hunters "contributed to this ecological catastrophe, just as New World hunters probably played a role in the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna in the New World."(18)
Tool technology again evolved to meet the new environmental subsistence reality. "Thus Mesolithic people turned increasingly to a broad spectrum of plant foods and fish, mollusks, and other riverine and maritime sources of food." The pictures on cave walls could no longer show pictures of many large, wild animals.(19)
Name: Wooly Mammoth and Mastadon
VI. Other
Factors
Around 40,000 years ago, evidence of greater technological refinement
appeared in abundant cultural artifacts, still evident in carvings and
paintings on rock. Personal adornments suddenly appeared in this period
as evidence of the cultural take-off. This period marked the transition of
our species to the modern Homo sapiens.
"Perhaps most important, the artifact assemblages that antedate 40,000 years ago commonly exhibit far less variability through time and space than later ones, whose remarkable spatial and temporal heterogeneity has allowed archaeologists to recognize numerous distinctive artifact 'cultures,' even within relatively small regions of short time spans."(21)