Archaeologists working in the Kursk region, 500 km south off Moscow (Russia), have found a relic of prehistoric art carved from mammoth’s tusk about 17,000 years ago. Natalya Ahmetgaleyeva, the chief of the archaeological expedition, said the object was found not far from the village of Byki.
     “It’s a small thing and it might have been used as a primeval hunter’s amulet or a fixed accessory of some primitive cult,” she said. “The find was made at what might have been the camp of the Stone Age people,” Ahmetgaleyeva said. “In its form, the object represents a broken ring 10 centimeters in diameter and 2 centimeters thick, with one of the ends resembling the torso of a horse with a well-detailed mane. We have every reason to believe this find doesn’t have analogs at all in many parameters,” she said.
     The amulet is destined to become an exhibit of the Museum and Local Lore and History in the town of Kurchatov. The archaeological expedition, staffed mostly by volunteers, has been doing excavations in the Kurchatov district for the past six years.

Source: ITAR-TASS (21 July 2004)