For the last few weeks mammoths have been at the forefront of interest at the TRC!
Initially this was due to a kind donation of some mammoth hair (TRC 2023.1510) in May 2022 by Erica Prus, who had earlier attended the TRC five-day intensive textile course. She had bought the hair online and it came with a certificate of authenticity, but was it actually mammoth hair or not, how can you tell?
Plastic bag with mammoth hair (TRC 2023.1510).
So we contacted friends at the Nederlands Forensisch Instituut (NFI), The Hague, asking if they could help. Was the hair genuine or not? It was a win-win for us, if genuine, how interesting, if a fake, how interesting!
For the NFI, however, it was of another, more immediate interest. One of the lesser known results of climate change is the increased availability of mammoth products, especially bone and ivory, from the melting permafrost in Siberia and Alaska. More and more complete bodies of mammoths are being revealed. This is becoming a problem for customs, police and other related institutes, because since 1989 there has been a global ban on the importation and use of elephant ivory, but mammoth ivory, due to the extinction of mammoths thousands of years ago, is legal. But how do you tell them apart?
DNA-analysis can distinguish mammoth ivory from elephant ivory, and the analysis on the provided hair can be used to build up and test the DNA database of the NFI
Detail of the root from a mammoth hair from Yakutia (TRC 2023.1510; photograph by Dr. A. Wolterink).The certificate with the mammoth hair given to the TRC stated that the hair came from a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and was found in the autonomous Yakutia (Sakha) republic in Russian Siberia and was between 10,000 and 70,000 years old. The sample was tested at the NFI by Dr. Arthur Wolterink, a specialist in animal forensics (traces left by animal products such as hair and fur at a crime) and in animal DNA.
Dr. Wolterink’s research showed that the quality of the TRC mammoth hair was poor, but DNA sequences were obtained. By comparing the DNA sequences to those of elephants and mammoths in an international database it became clear that it was indeed woolly mammoth hair and that it originated from a Siberian, rather than, for example, an American mammoth. In addition it was possible to give it a +/- age of about 43,000 years old. This makes the hair sample in the TRC Collection the oldest item that we have by many thousands of years!
DNA sequencing of KX176755.1, the TRC mammoth hair sample (TRC 2023.1510; sequencing by Dr. A. Wolterink).
Then a few days after learning about the origins of the hair sample, Dorothee Olthof (PRAE, a specialist in historical textile and sewing techniques) and I were working on a planned TRC mini-exhibition about the history and types of sewing needles. In doing so we came into contact with Monica Tielens, who has a bone working atelier called Bikkel en Been. When asked about examples of Roman and medieval-style needles in bone, horn, antler, and various types of wood, she said: "And oh yes, I also have some mammoth ivory and bone." She added that alas she did not immediately know what a Siberian mammoth needle looked like, if indeed there are any.
It would appear from published archaeological records that mammoth bone needles have indeed been found, for example, at sites such as the Mal’ta caves in Siberia, but it is not altogether clear from the published reports what the needles looked like. We did find a photograph of four needles from another, nearby cave called Strashnaya. These needles are made of bone of some kind, so it was decided to use these finds as a suitable template for producing a mammoth bone needle in the palaeolithic, Siberian-style. We will soon be going to Monica Tielens’ atelier in order to talk further about needles, and indeed the possibilities concerning mammoth needles!
Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director TRC, 22 September 2023
