This article appeared in the March/April issue of Discover magazine as "The Walrus Economy." Subscribe for more stories like these.
If you were a wealthy and pious noble person living in Europe 1,000 years ago, there would have been no better way to show off your fortune and your devotion to the Catholic Church than to commission the carving of some piece of holy paraphernalia out of walrus tusk ivory.
The head of a bishop’s staff, a reliquary, and small sculptures depicting religious figures are among the hundreds of walrus ivory artifacts that have been found at medieval sites across Europe. Their discovery provides evidence of a trade network that once extended from the northern edges of North America to the Mediterranean.
