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

eigns of Amenophis III and Tutankhamen until the end of the 18 th Dynasty (Liebowitz
1987: 20). Common items are curving wands or knives made from hippopotamus lower
canines (c. 2133-1306 B.C.), often found in tombs, as well as hippo canine clappers with
hands or Hathor heads at the terminus (c. 1900-1150 B.C.) (Reese 1998: 140).
Nevertheless, Egypt’s refined style, royal workshops, comparably better preservation of
material culture, and well-established chronology, does not mean that the ideas for all
items made in Egypt originated there (Lilyquist 1998: 27-28). Worked ivory was,
moreover, imported and exported, as recorded by the Amarna letters and discussed in
Chapter Four. Lilyquist does not consider the Qau ivories (large deposits of
hippopotamus ivories in Middle Egypt) to be 18 th Dynasty Egyptian due to the “foreign
overtones, as exhibited by Aegeanlike animal scenes and Near Eastern criss-cross
hatching and decorative drill work, as well as by animal scenes with Cypriot or eastern
Mediterranean style” (1998: 27, 30). Plus, ivory-decorated furniture was brought from
the Levant during the time of Tuthmosis and his successors (Potts 1987: 69).
Duck-shaped Containers
The duck containers alluded to in the discussion of the Ras Shamra ivories are an
interesting phenomenon, and especially germane to the discussion since one was
recovered from the Uluburun and is included in the stable isotope ratio analyses for this
thesis (KW 2534; see Figure 29). Duck-shaped containers were popular in the Levant
and have been recovered from Ras Shamra, Alalakh, Kamid el-Loz, Lachish, Megiddo,
Tel Dan, Shechem, Lachish, Meskene-Emar, Tell el Far‘ah, Akko, Sidon, and Gezer
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