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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Vern, post: 33792, member: 347&quot;]I would have to second the Thai theory.</p><p><br /></p><p>Straw hats are fairly common there.&nbsp; I am not familiar with sawing tusks for working bulls, but I am fairly familiar with elephants as a biologist and armchair elephant lover.&nbsp; In that, I suppose I find bliss in ignorance not knowing they are cutting them like this.&nbsp; We had one here at a zoo, in Alaska.&nbsp; I helped with some of the logistics of getting her out of here.&nbsp; This is no place for an elephant, only mammoths..&nbsp; Hahaha.&nbsp; I actually found some fossilized mammoth tusk this year.</p><p><br /></p><p>The scientist and lover in me hopes that the tusks were left off of this statue or broken off.&nbsp; The kind of agony one of these loving creatures would endure having them sawed is hard to imagine.&nbsp; Think getting one of your teeth cut off short and left that way…&nbsp; It isn&#039;t quite the same but for all we humans know it could be worse.&nbsp; You could end up with a severely traumatized and agonized beast that would be hard to break.&nbsp; I don&#039;t even like to think about the breaking, but that may be more brutal than tusk removal.&nbsp; i keep that out of mind.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyhow, the padding under the middle rider appears Asian or Indian style.&nbsp; My eyes are bad, but I see this as a piece from Thailand or Malaysia.&nbsp; The metal working seems to fit that region too.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Dating.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know.&nbsp; Could be modern or could be very old in my opinion.&nbsp; Elephants have been part of their culture for a long time.&nbsp; Safe to assume that this was post some western interaction due to the hat style.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I could be way off, but it is neat piece.&nbsp; Could you confirm for me that the tusks were intentionally that short in the sculpture and not broken somehow?&nbsp; Poor thing.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I still don&#039;t understand why people value ivory from these guys, walruses, and others.&nbsp; It is one thing to salvage the parts of a dead animal for all they can be used for, but just obtaining tusks as a trophy piece is beyond superficial and absolutely unrepresentative of stewarding the Earth.&nbsp; Some people still hunt walruses here, take their head and oosik, then leave the rest.&nbsp; I&#039;m a hunter myself, but I will not take a creature I cannot use.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Sorry about the tangent, it is just so sad to experience and witness the pride and greed of humans take them to very apathetic and desperate lengths.</p><p><br /></p><p>I say do not clean you statue at all and if you really want a date let a university dig a little in the nooks and crannies.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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