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Yana RHS Bone and Ivory Artifacts

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Small Ivory Box from Yana RHS
Ornamented Ivory Vessel from Yana RHS

Small ornamented ivory vessel from Yana RHS: A) general view; B) enlargement of outer decoration

Courtesy Vladimir V. Pitulko and Antiquity

Three mammoth ivory vessels were included in the collections. This one is the edge fragment of a small (55 millimeters long, or 2 inches) vessel. The rim is decorated with oblique incisions, and the surface has dots in a line. A second is an edge fragment 120 mm (4.7 in) long with widely spaced oblique incisions.

Manufacturing these vessels including forming to box from mammoth ivory by whittling, cutting, gouging and polishing, followed by engraving the design onto polished surfaces.

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