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

Further historical references to the Syrian elephant come from the twelfth century
Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I (ruled 1114-1076 B.C.), who in his fifth campaign drove
the Ahlami (Aramaeans) to Carchemish and “in the region of Haran and of the river
Habur I slaughtered ten mighty male elephants and took four alive. Their hides and
tusks, together with the live elephants, I brought to my city of Assur” (quoted in Scullard
1974: 29).
Given that the number of Syrian elephant osteological remains is small, most
reconstructions of the elephant distribution in western Asia rely on the known
environmental needs of the animal and the biogeography of the region in antiquity
(Krzyszkowska 1990: 28; Miller 1986). Krzyszkowska (1990) reconstructs a rather large
range of northern and western Syria, including the Amuq plain, across to the foothills of
the Zagros mountains, and southwards through the Assyrian plain to southern
Mesopotamia (Krzyszkowska 1990: 15). Similarly, Miller (1986: 29) examined the
biogeographical needs of elephants and concluded that two key interrelated factors
operated in the consideration of the range of the Syrian elephant: the development of a
woody savanna habitat in conjunction with a period of low settlement density. He
considers work by Cloudsley-Thompson (1977) and Wing and Buss (1970) on the
ecological requirements of elephants, but overestimates the browse requirements of the
elephant and underestimate their resourcefulness and flexibility in adapting to conditions
hitherto considered inadequate for elephants. He notes that elephants are generalist
feeders, and given abundant food resources may exploit a range of 16-52 km², although
these ranges may be extended considerably. Elephants moreover require an optimum
mix of grasses, bark, and tender branches in their diet, but Miller proffers that Asian
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