Tracing the Source of the Elephant And Hippopotamus Ivory from ...

The Negev Desert in Southern Israel was the focus of the next study by Avigour
et al. (1990). The purpose of the study was to compare the strontium isotope
compositions of secondary calcites to those of their marine carbonate host rocks. The
host rocks, which are of the most use for the present investigation, ranged from 0.707251
to 0.70755. The results of both the host rock and the secondary calcites are depicted in
Figure 47 (solid blue diamonds). The sample locations are furthermore portrayed in
Figure 50.
Also from this general area, but along the coastal plain of southern Israel (see
Figure 51 for location), come more 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values from Starinsky et al. (1983). These
values span from 0.7075 to 0.7090, with an average value of 0.7081 (see Figure 47 for
values, depicted as purple stars).
In an innovative use of strontium isotope values for reconstructing the history of
the ancient harbor at Caesarea Maritima, Reinhardt et al. (1998) also provided strontium
isotope ratios for the coastal region. The researchers took 42 samples from fossils for
87 Sr/ 86 Sr measurements to investigate temporal paleosalinities that may be related to the
shape of the harbor, and the results are listed in Figure 47 (solid gray circles). By
recognizing that “environments in close proximity to the fluvial input of strontium to the
world’s oceans may have 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios that deviate from that of the global value for
normal seawater” (Reinhardt et al. 1998: 3), they were able to draw some conclusions
about the form and function of the harbor by taking the known value of groundwater in
Israel (0.7080) and calculating mixing averages with the seawater in the eastern
Mediterranean (0.709072). Using this same principle, the strontium isotope budget of the
eastern Mediterranean will now be considered.
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