Station: [2] The tusk of a mammoth in the gravelpit of Zeithain
Aye, they really exist! The high points in the life of the regional ethnology researcher! Who could have hoped for such a spectacular find when, one fine day, I received a call to Röderau, on the other side of the River Elbe. There, in the gravel pits, they’d discovered a big, round object. I came, saw … and could hardly believe my eyes: right there in front of me was the tusk of a bull mammoth – really!
A unique find! We even had to call in the military to help. In the end, it took more than 20 men to recover that giant tusk.
But …, looking back now … wasn’t it a lot more curved? Almost a complete circle, the tusk … rounder…?
2. Ausgräber:
Indeed it was!
Mirtschin:
Wassat? Darn! Who’s that?
2. Ausgräber:
It’s me. The chap in the photograph. On the right of the showcase. The photograph on the far left.
Mirtschin:
Ah! You’re the one with a tusk on your shoulder – that’s not really curved, either.…
2. Ausgräber:
Indeed. That is our tusk. Yours was more of a circle.
Mirtschin:
But … So where is it? My tusk, I mean?
2. Ausgräber:
Here, at the front of the showcase.
Mirtschin:
You what? That little heap of splinters? That’s supposed to be my tusk?
2. Ausgräber:
Yes, unfortunately. You never thought to conserve it. And over the decades, it simply disintegrated.
Mirtschin:
But that’s … terrible! A disaster for science! Irretrievably lost!
2. Ausgräber:
Sadly, sadly. But fortunately, that wasn’t the end of the story…
Mirtschin:
… I beg your pardon?
2. Ausgräber:
More than half a century later, in 1993…
Mirtschin:
1993…
2. Ausgräber:
… in 1993, in that very same gravel pit, another tusk was found. By my fellow archaeologists and me.
Mirtschin:
How fortunate.
2. Ausgräber:
Indeed it is. Strictly speaking, we actually found two: two sections, almost a year apart. They were a perfect fit. And then they were expertly conserved in a long-drawn-out process.
Mirtschin:
And that’s the tusk on show in the display case.
2. Ausgräber:
Exactly right. Almost as handsome as the first one. A bit less curvaceous and much smaller … but a great deal more durable!
Mirtschin:
Good for the museum. It’s an ill wind…
2. Ausgräber:
I would say so!
Mirtschin:
And my other finds? The flint blade? The Bronze Age hoard?
2. Ausgräber:
Not a clue.
Mirtschin:
I must immediately go and check.… Come on, come along… Let’s go and check if everything is still in its place … or maybe that was all badly conserved, too, and has disintegrated? That would be catastrophic!