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

Figure 14: 18 th Dynasty Egyptian tomb relief from the reigns of Hatshepsut
and Tuthmosis III (Krzyszkowska 1990: 21, figure 6).
As for worked ivory from Egypt, common artifacts carved explicitly from
hippopotamus ivory include “wands” and “knives” of lower canines from the XIth to
XVIIIth Dynasties (c. 2133-1306 BC), and carved canines characterized by a hand or
Hathor head terminal from c. 1900-1150 BC. Qau also has a large collection of XVIII th
Dynasty worked hippopotamus ivory, but these may have been carved elsewhere, outside
of Egypt (cf. Lilyquist 1998: 27, 30).
Cyprus
As mentioned above, pygmy hippopotami were known on Cyprus, but in all
likelihood died out shortly after the island was colonized by humans, which is too early
for a consideration of the Late Bronze Age distribution of the hippopotamus
(Krzyszkowska 1990: 12). All of the Bronze Age to Early Iron Age hippopotamus
remains from Cyprus, save one molar, are incisors or canines. The molar was recovered
from a Late Cypriot IIIA (c. 1190-1125) domestic context in Kition, and represented a
30