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

of hippopotamus ivory, was utilized far more than in the previous period and makes up a
great majority of the recovered ivory (Karali-Yannacopoulos 1993: 57; Krzyszkowska
1993: 30). Common items were pyxides, combs, plaques, and the appliques and inlays
for furniture. A great deal of workshop material comes from Mycenae, from the
aforementioned Shaft Graves, Schliemann’s excavations on the acropolis, the Citadel
House and the Artisans’ Quarter. The House of the Shields and the House of the
Sphinxes include storerooms for workshop material (Krzyszkowska 1993: 30). A small
cube from Schliemann’s excavations, and a larger cube from the Citadel house represent
partly worked ivory (Reese and Krzyszkowska 1996: 325). The Citadel House reveals
hardly any evidence of the act of ivory working, but it possesses workshop material in
many storerooms. Surprisingly enough the bulk of this workshop material is not primary
raw material (tusks or sections of tusks), nor finished pieces, but rather works in progress,
off-cuts and waste (awaiting secondary manufacture). Krzyszkowska (1993: 28)
concludes that there was an obvious control of the raw materials by the workshop, so that
“fixed amounts could have been issued for piecework, with any waste or salvage being
returned on completion of the task.” A noteworthy find, because it is hippopotamus
ivory, includes a burnt unworked piece of a lower canine from the Citadel House (Reese
1998: 142). From Tiryns (see Figure 26) came a partly worked piece of elephant ivory,
in addition to a number of other pieces, including evidence for secondary manufacture
(Reese and Krzyszkowska 1996: 325; Krzyszkowska 1993: 27, 30). Nichoria also had a
large partly worked offcut of elephant ivory, while Pylos produced some unworked
fragments in a mixed context from the Lower Town. There is a bit of partly worked
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