Mammoth Ivory Hooded Woman Cameo Jewelry - Large

Yes. Mammoth ivory is dentine from the tusk of the woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, and it is true ivory in every structural sense. A mammoth tusk is a continuously growing upper incisor, laid down in nested conical increments over the animal's lifetime. That growth architecture is what makes the material carvable: the dentine is dense, fine-grained, and free of the porosity found in bone, so it takes an undercut edge and holds a polish. The woolly mammoth disappeared from mainland Alaska by about 10,000 years ago, so every carved woolly mammoth tusk on the market is fossil material recovered from the earth.

They are different animals from different families, and they are not closely related despite the resemblance. The woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, belongs to the family Elephantidae, which also includes living elephants. The American mastodon, Mammut americanum, belongs to the family Mammutidae, a lineage that separated from the elephant lineage more than 20 million years ago. Woolly mammoths and Asian elephants are genetically very similar close relatives, but they represent separate evolutionary lineages that diverged approximately 6–7 million years ago.

Their teeth tell them apart at a glance. Mammoths were grazers, with high-crowned molars built as tightly stacked enamel plates for grinding grasses. Mastodons were browsers, with low, blunt, cone-shaped cusps for crushing twigs and leaves.  Mammoths were also taller and rangier, while mastodons were shorter, heavier, and more barrel-bodied.

Their tusks differ in the same way. Mammoth tusks curve strongly and often spiral, while mastodon tusks are straighter and less twisted. Both yield true ivory and exhibit the acute outer Schreger angles characteristic of extinct proboscideans. Mastodon ivory is generally the harder material to carve, because it more often reaches the surface heavily mineralized, darkened, and prone to splitting along its growth cones.

They were, but only during warm intervals, and they were gone from the region long before the mammoths were. Mastodons were forest and wetland browsers, so Alaska suited them only when the north carried trees. Zazula and colleagues obtained fifty-three new radiocarbon dates on thirty-six mastodon fossils from Alaska and Yukon and found that the specimens consistently date to beyond or near the fifty-thousand-year limit of radiocarbon, with earlier full-glacial ages traced to contamination, some of it from old museum conservation treatments (Zazula et al., 2014, PNAS 111:18460–18465).

The picture that emerges is of mastodons living in the far north during the last interglacial, around 125,000 years ago, then retreating southward as glacial conditions returned near 75,000 years ago. They were absent from Alaska well before the last glacial maximum, and they held on south of the ice sheets until roughly 10,000 years ago. This is why Alaskan ivory carving is mammoth. Mastodon material from the region is scarce, far older, and too degraded for fine bas-relief work.

A transverse section of any proboscidean tusk shows a distinctive cross-hatched pattern of intersecting lines known as the Schreger pattern. Where those lines cross near the outside of the tusk, they form measurable angles, and those angles differ between extinct and living proboscideans. The outer Schreger angles of mammoth ivory are acute, below about 90 degrees, while those of modern elephant ivory are obtuse, above about 115 degrees (Espinoza and Mann, 1993, Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 32:241–248).

This is the criterion used in forensic ivory identification and reproduced in the CITES Identification Guide for Ivory and Ivory Substitutes. Because a band of overlap exists between 90 and 115 degrees, the published method calls for multiple angle measurements averaged across a section rather than a single reading. Mastodon ivory, from the related extinct genus Mammut, also falls in the acute range, and discriminant analysis of the full Schreger pattern separates mastodon from mammoth and both from living elephants (Trapani and Fisher, 2003).

Alaskan mammoth ivory weathers out of frozen silt, loess, and reworked placer gravels across interior and northern Alaska, much of it exposed during gold-mining operations. Burial in permafrost is the reason the material survives at all: the tusks are kept frozen and chemically stable rather than decomposing or fully permineralizing.

Alaskan mammoth ivory used for carving is Late Pleistocene, and most tusks range in age from roughly 12,000 to more than 40,000 years old. Radiocarbon dating surveys place the last mainland woolly mammoths in northwestern North America at about 15,000 to 13,000 calendar years before present, which sets the young end, while a great deal of recovered tusk lies at or beyond the practical limit of radiocarbon, about 50,000 years, which sets the old end. 

The cream, tan, and honey tones seen in fossil mammoth ivory come from long contact with groundwater and sediment during burial. Iron and other ions migrate into the outer dentine, staining it and producing the brown and amber gradients that some carvers exploit for tonal contrast. Other pieces, this cameo among them, are cut from mammoth ivory that stayed uniformly pale, and the carving is easily recognized in bas-relief. Blue and blue-green patches occasionally seen on mammoth ivory are vivianite, a hydrated iron phosphate that forms in the burial environment. Fine surface checking and shallow craquelure are normal in fossil ivory and reflect the burial history of mammoth tusks.

Ivory is hygroscopic, meaning it takes up and releases moisture with the surrounding air, and it expands and contracts as it does so. Sudden swings are what cause checking, so store the pendant away from direct sunlight, heat registers, car interiors, and prolonged dry conditions. Ordinary indoor humidity is fine. Wipe the ivory with a soft, dry cloth after wear, and apply perfume, lotion, and hairspray before putting the pendant on rather than after.

Never put mammoth ivory in an ultrasonic or steam cleaner. Both drive moisture and vibration into a porous, ancient material, potentially opening a crack. Alcohol, acetone, ammonia, bleach, and commercial jewelry dips will dull or etch the surface. If the ivory needs more than a dry wipe, use a barely damp cloth and dry it at once.

Gold does not tarnish, though the copper and silver alloyed into 14k can dull as skin oils and soap film build up on the wire. A soft, dry cloth restores the shine, and a polishing cloth made for gold will bring back the brightest finish on the wrap and bail. Gold is soft enough to scratch against harder stones, so keep the pendant in its own box or pouch rather than loose with other jewelry.

One caution applies here that would not apply to a plain gold pendant. Because this piece sets gold against ancient ivory, clean the metal with the cloth alone. Do not dip, soak, or ultrasonically clean the pendant to brighten the gold, since the treatments that are harmless to the wrap will damage the cameo. When in doubt, treat the whole piece as ivory.

Mammoth tusk value is driven by carving grade rather than by weight alone. A tusk that has stayed frozen and unfractured yields solid, workable ivory; one that has thawed and refrozen, or weathered at the surface, splits along its growth cones and yields little. Because only a fraction of recovered tusk is sound enough to carve, mammoth tusk price is set largely by how much usable material a piece contains, along with color, the depth and evenness of the mineral staining, and the absence of cracking.

For a finished piece such as this one, the carving itself carries most of the value. Hand-carved mammoth ivory of cameo quality requires sound stock of adequate thickness for bas-relief work, and the carver's skill in reading the tusk's natural color layers determines whether the figure will display naturally and beautifully. No two carved pieces are alike, because no two tusk sections are alike.