Editing Narwhal (section)

=== Tusk trade ===

[[File:Narwhal Goblet (30061080057).jpg|thumb|A [[goblet]] made from narwhal tusk in [[Milan]], Italy|alt=A goblet composed of narwhal tusk from Milan, Italy. The goblet is covered with jewels, has snake-shaped handles and a depiction of a woman at the top.]]

In Europe, narwhal tusks were highly sought-after for centuries. This stems from a medieval belief that narwhal tusks were the [[Unicorn horn|horns]] of the legendary [[unicorn]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dugmore |first1=Andrew J. |last2=Keller |first2=Christian |last3=McGovern |first3=Thomas H. |date=6 February 2007 |title=Norse Greenland settlement: reflections on climate change, trade, and the contrasting fates of human settlements in the North Atlantic islands |url=https://aa.uwpress.org/content/44/1/12 |journal=Arctic Anthropology |language=en |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=12–36 |doi=10.1353/arc.2011.0038 |issn=0066-6939 |pmid=21847839 |s2cid=10030083}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Pluskowski |first=Aleksander |date=January 2004 |title=Narwhals or unicorns? Exotic animals as material culture in medieval Europe |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/abs/narwhals-or-unicorns-exotic-animals-as-material-culture-in-medieval-europe/23DAD0724CE1D3C55A34950AE30E6BDF |journal=European Journal of Archaeology |language=en |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=291–313 |doi=10.1177/1461957104056505 |issn=1461-9571 |s2cid=162878182}}</ref><ref name="Daston">{{Cite book |last1=Daston |first1=Lorraine |title=Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150–1750 |last2=Park |first2=Katharine |date=2001 |publisher=Zone Books |isbn=0-942299-91-4}}</ref> Considered to have magical properties, narwhal tusks were used to counter poisoning, and all sorts of diseases such as [[measles]] and [[rubella]].<ref name=":17" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rochelandet |first=Brigitte |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NU9dAVCb2UsC |title=Monstres et merveilles de Franche-Comté: fées, fantômes et dragons |date=2003 |publisher=Editions Cabédita |isbn=978-2-88295-400-8 |pages=131 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robertson |first=W. G. Aitchison |date=1926 |title=The use of the unicorn's horn, coral and stones in medicine |journal=Annals of Medical History |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=240–248 |issn=0743-3131 |pmc=7946245 |pmid=33944492}}</ref> The rise of modern science towards the end of the 17th century led to a decreased belief in [[Magic (supernatural)|magic]] and [[alchemy]]. After the unicorn notion was scientifically refuted, narwhal tusks were rarely employed for magical purposes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spary |first=E C |date=2019 |title=On the ironic specimen of the unicorn horn in enlightened cabinets |journal=Journal of Social History |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=1033–1060 |doi=10.1093/jsh/shz005 |issn=1527-1897 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schoenberger |first=Guido |date=1951 |title=A goblet of unicorn horn |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3258091 |journal=The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin |volume=9 |issue=10 |pages=284–288 |doi=10.2307/3258091 |issn=0026-1521 |jstor=3258091}}</ref>

According to some theories, [[Vikings]] and [[Greenland Norse]] began trade of narwhal tusks, which, via European channels, would later reach markets in the [[Middle East]] and [[East Asia]]. The idea that [[Norsemen]] hunted narwhals was once held, but was never confirmed and is now considered improbable.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dectot |first=Xavier |date=October 2018 |title=When ivory came from the seas. On some traits of the trade of raw and carved sea-mammal ivories in the Middle Ages |url=https://bioone.org/journals/anthropozoologica/volume-53/issue-1/anthropozoologica2018v53a14/When-ivory-came-from-the-seas-On-some-traits-of/10.5252/anthropozoologica2018v53a14.full |journal=Anthropozoologica |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=159–174 |doi=10.5252/anthropozoologica2018v53a14 |issn=0761-3032 |s2cid=135259639}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schmölcke |first=Ulrich |date=December 2022 |title=What about exotic species? Significance of remains of strange and alien animals in the Baltic Sea region, focusing on the period from the Viking Age to high medieval times (800–1300 CE) |journal=Heritage |language=en |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=3864–3880 |doi=10.3390/heritage5040199 |issn=2571-9408 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Narwhal tusks were given as state gifts to kings and queens throughout medieval Europe, with the price of narwhal tusks said to have been a couple of hundred times greater than their weight in [[gold]] during the 18th and 19th centuries.<ref name=":16">{{Cite journal |last=Nweeia |first=Martin T. |date=15 February 2024 |title=Biology and cultural importance of the narwhal |journal=Annual Review of Animal Biosciences |volume=12 |pages=187–208 |doi=10.1146/annurev-animal-021122-112307 |issn=2165-8110 |pmid=38358838 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":12" /> [[Ivan the Terrible]] had a jewellery-covered narwhal tusk on his deathbed,<ref name=":12" /> while [[Elizabeth I]] received a narwhal tusk allegedly valued at £10,000 [[pounds sterling]] from the [[privateer]] [[Martin Frobisher]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sherman |first=Josepha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n2-sBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA476 |title=Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-45938-5 |page=476 |access-date=18 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928025222/https://books.google.com/books?id=n2-sBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA476 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> Both items were staples in [[cabinets of curiosities]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Ice and Eskimos: Dealing With a New Otherness |date=2014 |work=The Quest for the Northwest Passage: Knowledge, Nation and Empire, 1576–1806 |editor-last=Regard |editor-first=Frédéric |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/quest-for-the-northwest-passage/ice-and-eskimos-dealing-with-a-new-otherness/661ABBD6CC09480358D68E67B25708D3 |access-date=13 February 2024 |publisher=Pickering & Chatto |isbn=978-1-84893-270-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Duffin |first=Christopher J. |date=January 2017 |title='Fish', fossil and fake: medicinal unicorn horn |url=https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.1144/SP452.16 |journal=Geological Society, London, Special Publications |volume=452 |issue=1 |pages=211–259 |bibcode=2017GSLSP.452..211D |doi=10.1144/SP452.16 |issn=0305-8719 |s2cid=133366872}}</ref>{{Clear}}