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

near Beersheba. An EB I lower right canine was found outside the sanctuary at Ai, and
two EB II lower incisors hailed from Arad in the northern Negev (see Figure 10 for the
location of Ai and Arad). The Late Bronze Age is well represented at Ras Shamra
(Ugarit), whereas Minet el-Beida has just one canine. Iron Age cases come from Tell
Jalul (one upper canine) and Zincirli (one canine tip) in the Syrian Amuq (now Turkish
Hatay). Tell Qasile, in addition to the skeletal material discussed above, had one lower
canine and an incisor from the Iron Age. Sidon contained two molars “probably
Pleistocene or Holocene in date.” Other “probably Pleistocene or Holocene” material
came from Tell Dan, Tell Gezer (tooth and fragment of a canine), Tell el-Hesi, Rabbah
(molar), and Chekka (molar), located 10 km from Tripoli (Reese 1998: 140-141).
Thus the LBA is not well-represented by osteological evidence, but this seems to
be a mere blip in the overall record, being preceded by and preceding ample evidence.
Tusks, on the other hand, are most representative in LBA Ras Shamra (Ugarit), and
directly linked to ivory workshops in this renowned entrepot. A significant proportion of
the ivory recovered from the ivory workshops in Ugarit (dating to the fourteenth and
thirteenth centuries) were from hippopotami rather than elephants (Krzyszkowska 1990:
20; Bass 1997: 161; Reese 1998: 141). Overall, the coastal plains and river valleys,
including the Amuq region and the Orontes River, were the most probable sources of
hippopotamus ivory in the Levant. See Figures 12, 13, and 14 for detailed maps of the
Amuq and northern Orontes region, including the locations of Middle and Late Bronze
Age sites in the area.
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