Findings by Daniel Odess, curator of archaeology at the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, suggest that whale hunting dates back at least 3,000 years. Odess's team found a piece of walrus ivory inscribed with scenes of hunters in boats pursuing whales. Wood directly adjacent to the ivory was radiocarbon dated to arrive at the age. This predates previous evidence of whaling by 1,000 years.
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tags: bowhead whale, whaling, aging whales
This bomb lance fragment, patented in 1879, was removed from the neck of a male bowhead whale, Balaena mysticetus, killed near Barrow, Alaska, in May 2007. The shiny scars are the result of a chain saw cut.
Image: AP.
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and a postscript:
A Memo I'd Love to See: Whales and Economics
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2008/05/a_memo_id_love.html