Museum workers give a 38,000 year-old mammoth tusk a scrub and a clean

Leeds Discovery Centre takes on the 'mammoth' task of cleaning its prehistoric tusk every year. Found in the 1960s in the River Aire, the historical artefact offers important insights into the impact climate change can have on life

Museum workers give a prehistoric mammoth tusk its annual clean. The tusk was discovered in the 1960s and dates to an ice age 38,000 years ago. It was found in two pieces in the 1960s beneath the floodplain of the River Aire at a former coal mine in Leeds.

Leeds Discovery Centre takes on the 'mammoth' task of cleaning its prehistoric tusk every year. Found in the 1960s in the River Aire, the historical artefact offers important insights into the impact climate change can have on life

Clare Brown, from Leeds Discovery Centre, said: “It’s hard to imagine mammoths once lived here in Yorkshire. “Objects like our tusk can also tell us a great deal about the impact extreme changes in climates can have on life.” Mammoths, which died out about 4,000 years ago, weighed up to 13 tons.