Artifacts were attempted to be smuggled out of Ukraine under the guise of "creative artistic preparations"
At the Kyiv customs, an illegal attempt to send six fragments of mammoth teeth from Ukraine to the USA was intercepted, which possess cultural and scientific value.
“Customs officials discovered six heavy decorative plates of unclear origin in one of the parcels during the customs inspection of international postal shipments. The package was headed from Poltava region, Pyryatyn to the USA. The find was sent for examination,” – reported the capital's customs service.
Experts from the National Museum of Natural History determined that the unusual plates were nothing more than two molars from two different mammoths that lived during the Pleistocene epoch (305,000 – 130,000 years ago). Each tooth had been horizontally cut into three parts, and all elements were decorated with resin.
According to scientists, the teeth belonged to two different animals, aged 15 and 50 years. These paleontological artifacts were sent from Pyryatyn to the USA under the guise of "creative artistic preparations," which the sender valued at 10 US dollars.
Experts note that such specimens are rarely encountered and are valuable for studying the species diversity of mammoths during the Pleistocene in the territory of modern Ukraine.