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

century and the LH IIIB2 period on the mainland (ca. 1250-1200 BC). Many of the ivory
objects from the LBA are hippopotamus lower canines and incisors rather than elephant
tusks (Reese 1998: 142; Krzyszkowska 1990), with a higher percentage of hippopotamus
ivory in the first phase of Aegean ivory-carving, and by the second phase (represented
primarily in mainland Greece) the majority of the material is elephant. Ivory production
on Crete, meanwhile, is limited to the first period (LM IA-LM IIIA1) (Hayward 1990:
103), and represented by finds in Knossos, Zakro, Archanes, Kommos and Palaikastro.
At the Royal Road excavations in Knossos a working area for a workshop (including over
one kg of small chips, and evidence of secondary manufacture), fragments of large ivory
statuettes, and many small inlays were recovered (Reese and Krzyszkowska 1996: 325;
Krzyszkowska 1993: 27, 30-31; Scullard 1974: 260). The inlays were primarily
fashioned from hippopotamus ivory, but are in close association with the chips and
offcuts which are elephant ivory (Krzyszkowska 1990: 112; 1993: 28). Four elephant
tusks from the Zakro palace are dated to the LM IB destruction, circa 1450 B.C. (Reese
and Krzyszkowska 1996: 325; Krzyszkowska 1993: 30; Krzyszkowska 1990: 112;
Scullard 1974: 260) (see Figure 26 for location of Knossos and Zakro). Two pieces of
tusk sections from Archanes, and the center of a tusk and unfinished pieces from
Palaikastro have been recovered as evidence of ivory working (Reese and Krzyszkowska
1996: 325; Krzyszkowska 1993: 30). Additionally LM III Kommos yielded two small
elephant tusk segments, as well as partly worked ivory and leftover waste ivory (Reese
and Krzyszkowska 1996: 324; Krzyszkowska 1993: 30).
The finds from the mainland are much less than those from Crete during this
period. Ivories on the mainland were manufactured from the early 16 th to the late 13 th
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