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

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Chapter 1 Introduction The Uluburun became anchored in the imagination of the public and specialists alike since it was first discovered off the southwest coast of Turkey in 1982. The shipwreck dates to 1300 B.C. (Late Bronze Age), as determined by dendrochronology (Pulak 1996), and is most well-known for its rich and cosmopolitan cargo, carrying artifacts from at least seven cultures: Mycenaean, Canaanite, Cypriot, Egyptian, Kassite (Babylonian), Assyrian, and Nubian. Given the unusually large cargo of metal (10 tons of copper and 1 ton of tin), the Uluburun has been interpreted by its excavators, George Bass (1987; 1997) and Cemal Pulak (1997; 1998; 2001), as a royal cargo. Part of this wealthy cargo was a primary section of a large elephant tusk (cf. Krzyszkowska 1993: 30), and even more surprising were six canines and seven incisors of hippopotamus ivory, which serve as the focal point for my investigation. While the majority of the finds from the Uluburun shipwreck have been ascribed probable origins, the ivory recovered as raw material has thus far evaded assignment of provenance. Several educated guesses, based on archaeological and historical data, have been offered. However, the lack of agreement among scholars, partly due to clear biases and inconsistencies within the archaeological and historical records, requires that another avenue of research be sought, that is, a source determination based on isotopic ratio analysis. Unfortunately the source of ivory cannot be determined from the color or relative hardness of the ivory, and structural characteristics will only differentiate elephant ivory from hippopotamus ivory. There is furthermore no means for distinguishing ivory obtained from the Asian versus the African species of elephant, and the only diagnostic 1
skeletal part to verify the presence of one of these species is the post-cranial material (Krzyszkowska 1990: 7-12; Karali-Yannacopoulos 1993: 58). As of yet there are no means for determining the provenance of ivory based on routine laboratory methods. However, analyses conducted by van der Merwe et al. (1990) using 13 C/ 12 C, 15 N/ 14 N, and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isotope ratios in the bone collagen of modern African elephants demonstrated the efficacy of isotopic analysis for provenancing elephant bone and ivory. Furthermore, recent research by White et al. (1998) utilized 18 O/ 16 O to distinguish between human populations (see Chapter Six for a discussion of these studies). Isotope ratio analysis has furthermore been utilized in archaeological bone chemistry studies to reconstruct the diet and health of ancient populations, residence and mobility patterns, and palaeoclimate. Stable isotopic ratio analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes was therefore conducted on the collagen of the Uluburun ivory samples, in addition to carbon and oxygen isotope analysis on the apatite component of the ivories. δ 13 C, δ 15 N, and δ 18 O reflect the climate and vegetation of the area in which a population lives, and, as a result, areas with similar climate and vegetation will produce similar isotopic signatures, even though these areas may be geographically distant from one another. Consequently, strontium isotope ratio ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) analysis of the samples was also included in the research program in order to confidently distinguish between populations. The strontium ratio mirrors the isotopic signature of the underlying rock, and is sufficiently unique to each source area to warrant differentiation. Three bone samples from Maraş Fili, Turkey, were also analyzed to compare the isotope ratio values of the ivory with those from a known region. 2
Page 1 and 2: Tracing the Source of the Elephant
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents List of Tables iv
Page 5 and 6: Mechanisms of Late Bronze Age trade
Page 7 and 8: List of Figures Figure 1. Morpholog
Page 9 and 10: Figure 35. Average δ 13 C values o
Page 11 and 12: Figure 69. KW 2557 (Hippopotamus tu
Page 13: “merchants” to a larger degree
Page 17 and 18: possibility of sophisticated scient
Page 19 and 20: B.C. and resumed Egyptian campaigni
Page 21 and 22: urbanization at centers such as Enk
Page 23 and 24: incisors”) of the elephant. Each
Page 25 and 26: Dentine in elephant tusks is essent
Page 27 and 28: perpendicular to the tubules....[co
Page 29 and 30: Figure 3 : The incisors and canines
Page 31 and 32: for the elephant, is where the dent
Page 33 and 34: Chapter 3 The Archaeological, Histo
Page 35 and 36: pastoralism. Today most of the hipp
Page 37 and 38: emains in the Syro-Palestinian regi
Page 39 and 40: near Beersheba. An EB I lower right
Page 41 and 42: Figure 13: The distribution of Midd
Page 43 and 44: Figure 14: 18 th Dynasty Egyptian t
Page 45 and 46: Chapter 4 The Archaeological, Histo
Page 47 and 48: Figure 16: Present distribution of
Page 49 and 50: Maghreb was inaccessible or nonexis
Page 51 and 52: flooding and dense human population
Page 53 and 54: BCE), mentions imports of approxima
Page 55 and 56: The degree of contact between the L
Page 57 and 58: Minoan and Mycenaean sherds from th
Page 59 and 60: are lacking in North Africa, but th
Page 61 and 62: Part II: The Syrian Elephant Turnin
Page 63 and 64: Figure 22: Location of Ghab Valley
Page 65 and 66:
elephants show a lower preference f
Page 67 and 68:
similar to those of the African ele
Page 69 and 70:
Chapter 5 Ivory Workshops in the La
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of the waste pieces may be reused f
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ivory and silver (Odyssey XIX.55) a
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century B.C. (LH I-LH IIIB), but th
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ivory from a burnt deposit in Thebe
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Tell Fakhariyah has only yielded ex
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Figure 28: Comparison of utilizatio
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Much of the discussion about Palest
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(Lilyquist 1998: 27; Gachet 1993: 7
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argues that for both of the types
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The End of Ivory-working in the LBA
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study residence and mobility. Katze
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feeding on the plant (Sukumar and R
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4‰ lower than those of marine pla
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Studies which have focused on evalu
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sediments in one area had isotopic
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local environment, and thus answer
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Figure 32: Sr concentrations plotte
Page 105 and 106:
Figure 34: 87 Sr/ 86 Sr vs. age of
Page 107 and 108:
Chapter 7 Ecological and Dietary Re
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wide, straight lips of the hippo en
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unlikely that many were actually ea
Page 113 and 114:
proportion of C3 to C4 vegetation i
Page 115 and 116:
diet as interpreted from the stable
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had larger ranges than those elepha
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Tchamba and Seme (1993) likewise re
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fact adapted to the desert, and thi
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Table 2: δ 13 C values and % C4 fr
Page 125 and 126:
Figure 35: Average δ 13 C values o
Page 127 and 128:
Table 4: Percentage of C3 plants in
Page 129 and 130:
Table 5: Isotope values for Ambosel
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Figure 39: “Carbon and nitrogen i
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Table 6 (continued) 120
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Figure 41: δ 13 C versus δ 15 N f
Page 137 and 138:
Figure 43: δ 13 C versus δ 15 N f
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Figure 44: δ 13 C versus 87 Sr/ 86
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In conclusion, isotopic analysis ha
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(Ugarit/Ras Shamra). Only two studi
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fault and is filled with flood-basa
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Figure 49: Geologic and fault map o
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The Negev Desert in Southern Israel
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The Eastern Mediterranean and the N
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and water and sediment from the Nil
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Figure 55: Contour diagrams for the
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Figure 56: The Sr isotope ratios in
Page 159 and 160:
Figure 58: Schematic diagram along
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strontium data from Betton and Cive
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These flood basalts have 87 Sr/ 86
Page 165 and 166:
Figure 63: Map of the Libyan Desert
Page 167 and 168:
Table 7: Isotopic data of high-grad
Page 169 and 170:
Chapter 11 Analytical Procedures, S
Page 171 and 172:
Table 9: Collagen samples for analy
Page 173 and 174:
USF # Museum Catalog # Table 10: Ap
Page 175 and 176:
Figure 66: KW 1182 (Hippopotamus tu
Page 177 and 178:
Figure 70: KW 3842 (Elephant ivory)
Page 179 and 180:
Chapter 12 Results and Discussion R
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d18O (apatite, per mil) 3 2 1 0 -1
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and hippopotami are grazers. To com
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fetched (with the Nile ≈ +2‰).
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opposed to the 2-3 mg required for
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international environment. The LBA
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ecause they were subject to taxatio
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were other ruling elites (Ratnagar
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scientific archaeometric angle and
Page 197 and 198:
Chapter 13 Conclusion and Suggestio
Page 199 and 200:
compare, the more unique the region
Page 201 and 202:
Aufderheide, A.C., Neiman, F.D., Wi
Page 203 and 204:
Caubet, A., and Poplin, F. 1993. La
Page 205 and 206:
Finley, M.I. 1981. Mycenaean palace
Page 207 and 208:
Horn, P., and Müller-Sohnius, D.,
Page 209 and 210:
Liebowitz, H. 1987. Late Bronze II
Page 211 and 212:
Price, T.D., Grupe, G., and Schröt
Page 213 and 214:
Sherratt, A., and Sherratt, S. 1991
Page 215 and 216:
van der Merwe, N. J., Lee-Thorp, J.
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