[Bonetools] passing on the question

[Alice Choyke]

Well - that is research begging to be done...

Cheers!
Alice

On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 8:51 AM, Ariel Shatil <ariel.shatil at mail.huji.ac.il>
wrote:

> 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 It is unpublished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
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ************************************************************************************
>>>> This footnote confirms that this email message has been scanned by
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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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