<div dir="ltr"><div><div>Hi Alice,<br></div>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.<br><br></div>Ariel<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 9:16 AM, Alice Choyke <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:choyke@gmail.com" target="_blank">choyke@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">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. <span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div><br></div><div>Alice</div></font></span></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 8:09 AM, Ariel Shatil <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ariel.shatil@mail.huji.ac.il" target="_blank">ariel.shatil@mail.huji.ac.il</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Hi John, Alice and Etan<br></div>I once thought doing a little research on these objects, so I know of a few more examples besides the one from Qana.<br></div><div><br>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 <i>Syria</i> from 1959. <br></div>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!<br><br></div><div>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 <b>Bir</b> es-Sfadi?). Again, it might be worth while to contact the IAA National Treasures Center. This fragmented item is numbered there IAA 2013-1335.<br> <br></div><div><br></div><div>Best,<br></div>Ariel<br><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div>On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 5:13 PM, איתן איילון <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:etana@eretzmuseum.org.il" target="_blank">etana@eretzmuseum.org.il</a>></span> wrote:<br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div>
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<p>Dear friends,</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Etan Ayalon </p>
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<div style="DIRECTION:ltr"><font face="Tahoma" color="#000000" size="2"><b>From:</b> Bonetools [<a href="mailto:bonetools-bounces@listserv.niif.hu" target="_blank">bonetools-bounces@listserv.niif.hu</a>] on behalf of Alice Choyke [<a href="mailto:choyke@gmail.com" target="_blank">choyke@gmail.com</a>]<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, August 19, 2015 3:50 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Mailing list for archaeologists of the research group for the study of object and waste of bone, antler. ivory and horn.<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Bonetools] passing on the question<br>
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<div><span style="FONT-SIZE:12px">John Gorczyk from Cornell University in the States
</span><font color="#000000">(<span style="WHITE-SPACE:nowrap"><a href="mailto:jmg433@cornell.edu" target="_blank">jmg433@cornell.edu</a>)</span></font><span style="FONT-SIZE:12px"> 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.</span></div>
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<div><span style="FONT-SIZE:12px">Alice</span></div>
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<div style="FONT-SIZE:12px">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!!</div>
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<div style="FONT-SIZE:12px">Here's what they look like:</div>
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<div style="FONT-SIZE:12px"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Treasure_of_Nahal_Mishmar_(2).JPG" target="_blank">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Treasure_of_Nahal_Mishmar_(2).JPG</a>
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<br></blockquote></div><span><font color="#888888"><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div>Ariel Shatil<br>Institute of Archaeology<br>The Hebrew University, Jerusalem </div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">Ariel Shatil<br>Institute of Archaeology<br>The Hebrew University, Jerusalem </div>
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