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

objects to Egypt, probably as some sort of gift-exchange between rulers. Worked ivory is
meanwhile recorded as sent to King Tarkhundaraba of Arzawa (EA 31:37) and to Kings
Kadashman-Enlil I and Burnaburiash II of Babylon (EA 5:20; 14; col. III 75-77, col. IV
1-19, 60, 61), while there is additionally a letter from Burnaburiash asking for worked
ivory (EA 11: Rev. 10-11) (Hayward 1990: 104; Bass 1997: 160). Hayward (1990: 104),
however, points out that in the Amarna letters and other historical texts ivory was
imported to Egypt, but only worked ivory was exported. Egypt’s role as intermediary
therefore requires more precise methods for ascertaining the source of ivory in the eastern
Mediterranean.
Nubia and Punt
The land to the south of Egypt from which elephant ivory came was known as
Punt and Meroe to the Egyptians and corresponds roughly to Somalia and
eastern/southeastern Sudan, respectively (see Figure 19 for map of region south of
Egypt). An expedition by Sesostris I (ruled c. 1971-1928) to Nubia is recorded to have
brought back a live elephant, and the bones of a male elephant were recovered from a
Ramsesside royal residence at Piramesse. Indeed, in the New Kingdom tusks were
shipped down the Nile with increasing frequency and Queen Hatshepsut sent an
expedition to Punt to procure tusks, among other goods, around 1500 B.C. (Scullard
1974: 27; Gautier et al. 1994: 13). Ivory was imported from the Sudan by way of the
Nile Valley or the Red Sea during the 18th and 19th dynasties (c. 1550-1186 B.C.) since
there were no elephants in Egypt or its Nubian territories by this time. An inscription
from Qusr Ibrim in Lower Nubia, dating to the reign of Amenophis II (c. 1427-1400
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