MILLENNIUM TUSK

In order to do this, I have chosen to do a monumental carving in a mammoth tusk. (See below for info about the wooly mammoth.) It is my intention to represent on the tusk something of our human journey from the time the tusk was laid down in the frozen soil, some 12,000 to 40,000 years ago, to the present.

The choice of medium will also serve as a reminder for us to live in such a way that we do not share that creature's fate! The carving will be one of hope, that our descendants will one day live to welcome the fourth millennium.

The carving is based on the premise that hand, mind and spirit have worked together throughout history to make us what we are today. Inlaid gold flakes will represent our life-energy, which we have exchanged with each other from the beginning of time, in the quest for human community and achievement. The tip of the tusk will remain uncarved, to represent the unwritten future, one of hope, that our descendants will live to welcome the fourth millennium.

These four themes (hand, mind, spirit, and life-energy) will be converted into abstract patterns and interwoven along the length and depth of the tusk.

Two of the themes, mind and spirit, have been explored in my earlier works, "Duality" and "Monarch II and III," and, with some variation in meaning, in "Celtic Confusion" and "Candle Ice." The intention with "Millennium" will be to use angled, overlapping, geometric shapes to represent the human intellect and the evolution of ideas, or thought, in the human community. Curvaceous, sinewy lines and ribbons will represent the spiritual side of our collective growth. Often these two sides of our common nature have been at odds, one or the other being dominant during most periods of our history. Perhaps the future will see a synthesis of these energies ...

The third theme will involve the creation of a series of human hands, again, woven along the length and depth of the tusk, representing our physical ability to manipulate the world. After all, our hands have been credited with making a substantial contribution to human growth and evolution!

Finally, gold flakes will be inlaid along the natural fissures of the tusk to represent human life-energy, which we have exchanged with each other in various forms (service, barter, currency) since the beginning of time. The distillation of human energy into a form that can be stored and exchanged has allowed for the creation and sustenance of the human community.

Feel free to follow along as things progress!

See also:

• Yukon News, "Arts and Entertainment - Sculptor tackles millenium tusk" by Erling Friis-Baastad, Scripts-Howard News Service, December 16, 1998. (Winner of the 1998 British Columbia and Yukon Newspapers Association Award for best article in the "Arts and Cultural Writing" category.)

• Midday (CBC TV): Feature on Millennium Tusk, Faro, Yukon and Kleinburg, Ontario, July 9, 1999

  
  

• Northbeat (CBC TV): Feature on Millennium Tusk, Faro, Yukon, June 1999

  
  

The Wooly Mammoth (mammuthus primigenius) ranged throughout North America, Asia and Europe between 12,000 and 40,000 years ago. It had several cousins, many of whom, including the smaller mastodon (see below for comparison), are now extinct. Present day elephants and the aquatic manatee are also relations. No one knows for sure why the mammoth died out, but experts suspect it was a combination of climactic change, which reduced the feeding range, and hunting pressure by our early ancestors.

Mammoth tusks were large teeth, made of ivory (dentin), with a protective layer of cementum. They were used for defense, dominance, mating rituals, and may have served as snowplows, clearing the ground for winter-feeding. Mammoth ivory is distinguishable from other ivory by its characteristically unique, oblique crosshatched pattern, evident when polished. In cross section, the tusk has three layers: bark (cementum), body and core (dentin). The bark is thin and darkly coloured. It can be polished and is occasionally used in jewelry. The body is the primary material used for carving. It is uniform and thick, enabling high relief or sculpture in the round. It can hold incredible detail and take a high polish. The core, made of new growth ivory, is of inconsistent quality.

Neanderthal hands created the oldest known sculpture made from mammoth ivory 100,000 years ago. Mammoth ivory has continued in use as a carving medium, long after the extinction of the mammoth, up to the present. Today, its use is encouraged as a substitute for elephant ivory.

Mammoth or Mastadon?

• Mastodons appeared some 20-30 million years go in what is now Egypt. Mammoths did not show up in Africa until 3-4 million years ago.
  
• Mammoth teeth are big and blocky for grinding grass; mastodon teeth are more pointy suited for chomping softer swamp, wetlands plants.
  
• A mammoth's trunk had two projections, one in front and one in back, probably to help it grasp food. No mastodon trunks have been found.
  
• Mammoths have distinctly sloping backs making shoulders higher than rear quarters, like modern Asian elephants; mastodons have straight backs.
  
• Mastodons generally had 20 pairs of ribs, the same as African elephants. Mammoths had 19 pairs of ribs, the same as modern Asian elephants.
  
• A mammoth's skull is broader and less exaggerated in shape with a single dome, similar to that of an African elephant.
  
• Mastodon hides are generally described as brownish-grey; Mammoth skin specimens have been found with black, brown, reddish-brown and yellow hair.
  
• Mammoth tusks as long as 3.5 metres have been found in Siberia. That is longer than the modern African elephant and more than twice the tusk size of an Asian elephant. Mastodon tusks were roughly the same size as an African elephant's.
  
• Mastodons were shorter. The tallest ever found was about three metres high at the shoulders. Mammoths typically ranged from 2.7 to 3.3 metres in height, although some four-metre tall specimens have been found, comparable to African elephants.
  
• A dwarf species of Mammoth managed to survive the Ice Age on Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia, dying out about the time the Egyptians were building the pyramids. Mastodons became extinct 9000 years ago, about the same time as most other mammoth species.
  
• Mammoths and mastodons largest known mammals to live in NA.

Other Facts about the Mammoth

• Woolly mammoths ranged from Ireland to eastern North America.
  
• Its ears were much smaller than the elephant's, likely to save heat.
  
• A nomadic group of humans, known as the Clovis, hunted the mammoth in Siberia and the Americas. One theory says they were a factor in the mammoth's exinction.
  
• The oldest mammoth found to date lived 250,000 years ago.
  
• An adult mammoth weighed about 10 tons and stood at the shoulder at least twice the height of a human.
  
• Gestation period for the mammoth is estimated to be 22 months.
  
• Mammoths lived to be about 60 years.
  
• Arctic peoples believed that mammoths were a kind of subterranean mole that lived until exposed to light. The Gwitchin peoples of Old Crow have a story about a creature that burst from the bank of the Porqupine River, close to the present day community, and wandered up river and died. Palentologists, after hearing the story, found the remains of a mammoth where the creature was said to have died.
  
• So much mammoth ivory was left behind in northern Asia that a trade in fossilized mammoth tusks, dating back to the Middle Ages, continues in Russia today.

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  Copyright © 1997 - 2006 Shane Wilson