About 10 thousand years ago, Northern Siberia and Yakutia were inhabited by long-haired giants called mammoths. The now extinct genus of mammals suffered from increased temperatures at the end of the last ice age, which resulted in flooding and reducing their habitat. The animals were trapped on isolated islands without the slightest chance of returning to the mainland. Some populations trapped on these land areas in the East and in the North of Siberia remained there for some more time, and became extinct around 3,700 years ago.
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Nowadays the relics of mammoths, their tusks in particular, are considered to be the most common fossilized assets in Yakutia and Siberia. Scientists estimate the reserves of this ancient material in Russia at about hundreds of thousands of tons, and their annual production amounts to 20 to 60 tons. Given the volume of the produced relics, one can only imagine what a great number of mammoths lived in these lands in those days. Well-known award-winning tusks curled into spirals up to 4-4.5 meters, their weight was 100-110 kg, and their diameter was 18-19 cm.
The indigenous people of the Northern regions, who had often met tusks washed off by the spring waters, believed that the giant animals moved under the ground, only showing the "fangs" above the ground. They called them Eggor, i.e. Earth Deers. According to another legend, the mammoths had lived as early as the time of creation. Due to their enormous weight, they used to constantly sink into the ground to their chest. In the paths created by mammoths, rivers and streams formed, which ultimately resulted in the complete flooding (there is a legend that during the Genesis flood, the animals wanted to be rescued on the Noah's ark, but failed to fit in there). For some time afterwards, the animals swam in the vast waters, but the birds that sat on the tusks condemned them to death.
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