Twaalf kiezen van een neushoorn en een holenbeer before 1869

Here are twelve teeth of a woolly rhinoceros and a cave bear, presented in an anonymous print. We can only speculate about the processes that brought this image into being. The teeth themselves would have taken millennia to fossilize and were then likely unearthed during excavation for building or infrastructure. These teeth would have become interesting to science in the 18th and 19th centuries, as a material index of deep time. Once the teeth were identified, they had to be carefully arranged and lit for optimal viewing, then photographed. We can imagine a laborious process of etching and plate production, followed by the printing itself. The image flattens the teeth, making them more easily comparable. In this way, the print is not so different from a museum display, organizing and presenting natural history for human consumption. In the end, the image invites us to consider the labor of its making, as well as our changing relationship to the natural world.