[Bonetools] passing on the question

[Ariel Shatil]

Hi Alice,
As far as I know no such research was done, but I might be wrong. In any
case, the 5 hippo tusks and the one elephant tusk from the Nahal Mishmar
cave must be looked at in the context of the whole treasure and not as
separate objects. There are a few differing opinions what this treasure is
all about. Some say in belonged to the near by Chalocholitic shrine at
Ein-Gedi (which means they were used occasionally?). Others say they belong
to itinerant merchants who were storing merchandize in the cave (which
means they were not used?). Other say they were stored there before
re-smelting the copper (which means they might have been old and should
have already been used extensively?). I know at least one of the hippo
tusks had a cloth string tied to it.

Ariel

On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 9:16 AM, Alice Choyke <choyke at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ariel - has anyone done research into the wear on these objects. Were they
> heavily handled or were they deposited new into special places as specially
> crafted  offerings? In any case thanks for the information from you and
> from Etan. it is comforting to know that there are at least a couple of
> other sites where these strange and fascinating Chalcolithic objects were
> found.
>
> Alice
>
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 8:09 AM, Ariel Shatil <
> ariel.shatil at mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
>
>> Hi John, Alice and Etan
>> I once thought doing a little research on these objects, so I know of a
>> few more examples besides the one from Qana.
>>
>> At least one example was found in Bir es-Sfadi \ Khirbet Zafad near Be'er
>> Sheba by J. Perrot. I'm not sure it was ever published, but it might be
>> worthwhile to check out his article "Statuettes en Ivoire et Autre Objets
>> en Ivoire et en os Provenant des Prehistoriques de la Region de Beersheba".
>> I think its in the journal *Syria* from 1959.
>> If its not published there, you might want to contact The National
>> Treasures Center of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The item you are
>> looking for is numbered IAA 1958-597 and I know they have really nice
>> pictures of it!
>>
>> There is another example you might want to check out. It is unpublished
>> but I've seen a picture of it. Its very fragmented (more than 20 pieces)
>> and in my opinion does not look exactly like the objects you are looking
>> for. It is said to come from the site of el-Bira. The problem is that this
>> site earliest level is the Iron Age. So I suspect its either an Iron Age or
>> later object, or the object was registered to el-Bira mistakenly, and might
>> actually be from somewhere else (maybe *Bir* es-Sfadi?). Again, it might
>> be worth while to contact the IAA National Treasures Center. This
>> fragmented item is numbered there IAA 2013-1335.
>>
>>
>> Best,
>> Ariel
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 5:13 PM, איתן איילון <etana at eretzmuseum.org.il>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear friends,
>>>
>>> At least one similar piece was found in the Chalcolithic assemblage from
>>> Nahal Qana Cave, Israel (along with, inter alia, 4 rare gold rings!),
>>> published in a book by Avi Gopher and Tsvika Tsuk which won't be difficult
>>> to find.
>>>
>>> Etan Ayalon
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* Bonetools [bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu] on behalf of
>>> Alice Choyke [choyke at gmail.com]
>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 19, 2015 3:50 PM
>>> *To:* Mailing list for archaeologists of the research group for the
>>> study of object and waste of bone, antler. ivory and horn.
>>> *Subject:* [Bonetools] passing on the question
>>>
>>> John Gorczyk from Cornell University in the States (jmg433 at cornell.edu) has
>>> asked me to pass on this query. As always please respond to the list  and
>>> directly to John's email (see above) as well.
>>>
>>> Alice
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> A friend of mine is working on her BA thesis on hippo tusk artifacts
>>> from Nahal Mishmar. These tusks have numerous perforations all along the
>>> length of the tusk fragment (see link below). She's having difficulty
>>> finding other examples of such artifacts, and I told her I'd send the
>>> question out to the zooarch community. Does anyone know of other examples
>>> of, or publications about, these artifacts? Thanks!!
>>>
>>> Here's what they look like:
>>>
>>> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Treasure_of_Nahal_Mishmar_(2).JPG
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ************************************************************************************
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>>> computer viruses.
>>>
>>> ************************************************************************************
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ariel Shatil
>> Institute of Archaeology
>> The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
>>
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>
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-- 
Ariel Shatil
Institute of Archaeology
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
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