Archaeological Ivories: A practical guide for identifying elephant and hippo ivory in the archaeological record

Abstract

The use of osseous materials for crafting various artifacts is well-attested in the archaeological record of the ancient Near East. While bone, the most common and available material, was used more frequently, ivory was highly valued as an exotic material for fashioning exquisite prestige items designed for ostentatious display and linked to society's elite strata. Therefore, reliably distinguishing between the taxonomic origins of the osseous artifacts is significant for interpreting the archaeological data. In the Near East, the demand for ivory products reached its zenith during the mid-2nd to mid-1st millennia BCE, producing one of the largest assemblages unearthed anywhere in the world. Using state-of-the-art bio-molecular analyses to study this collection is costly, time-consuming, and entails damaging the highly-curated artifacts. This paper provides an essential, simple, non-destructive, and validated method to distinguish bone from elephant or hippo ivory (the most common osseous materials attested in the Near East record). However, following similar guidelines can help index other biological sources of ivory.