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

Part II: The Syrian Elephant
Turning attention to the north, the Syrian population of elephants is just as
promising a source for the elephant ivory on the Uluburun shipwreck. Some scholars
(e.g. Miller 1986) believe the Syrian elephant may have been introduced into the region
because there is a dearth of evidence for it before the 2 nd millennium (in the form of,
presumably, Mesopotamian historical references to an ivory trade from Syria), and due to
the small size of the population described by the Egyptian and Assyrian historical sources
(cf. Krzyszkowska 1990: 15; Miller 1986: 29-30; Winter 1973: 267-268; Hayward 1990:
103; Collon 1977). However, I see no reason for assuming that Syrian elephants did not
exist in the region before the 2 nd millennium. The elephants of Syria may not have been
exploited for ivory, whether because Egyptian ivory was preferred (because it was
coming from the larger-tusked Bush variety of the African elephant?), trade networks
with Egypt were more established than those with Syria, or the inhabitants of Syria had
not yet organized such a trade, for whatever reasons. Furthermore, the Syrian elephant is
regarded to be of the same species as, or perhaps a sub-species of, the Asian elephant
(Elephas maximas). Thus, like Asian elephants, only the male Syrian elephants would
have had tusks (Krzyszkowska 1990: 15, 17, 27).
Suffice it to say for now that elephants are known to have inhabited Syria during
the Late Bronze Age, based on osteological and historical evidence. Elephant bones,
other than tusks, have been found at Ras Shamra (Ugarit), Alalakh, and several other
Mesopotamian sites (Miller 1986: 30). The earliest osteological evidence for Syrian
elephants are remains from Babylon (c. 1800 BC), although it is unclear whether these
remains are in fact from the Syrian elephant and not the Asian elephant, traded in from
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