Elephant tusk
Ο-Ε710
Bone (Ivory)
Intact, mended, with worn surface and strong traces of fire.
Length: 70 cm. Maximum thickness: 14 cm.
Zakros
Palace
Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period, Late Minoan ΙI period.:
1500-1450 BC:
Gallery:
VCase:
50Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). The New Palaces. The zenith of Minoan civilisationTrade and foreign contacts. Minoan Thalassocracy. International commerce and cultural influences
Description
One of four elephant tusks found together with six copper ingots in a small ground-floor room of the palace of Zakros. They had fallen from the upper storey of the building, probably from a room in which valuable raw materials for the palace workshops were stored. Theis small size probably indicates that they come from a small species of elephant, leading the excavator of the palace N. Platon to suppose that they came from the region of Syria rather than Egypt. The excavation of the palace of Zakros brought to light a series of ivory artefacts, such as miniature double axes, a model of a butterfly and inlays from various utensils and pieces of furniture, as well as the remains of an ivory workshop on the ground floor of the palace, and the raw material itself. The quest for “exotic” raw materials for making miniature works in the Minoan palaces was one of the factors leading to the intensification of long sea voyages in the Neopalatial period. The construction of the palace of Zakros itself is clearly linked to its role as an organised Minoan harbour at the east end of Crete, a location that facilitated the maritime connection of the island to Egypt and the East.Bibliography:
Lambrou-Phillipson, C. Hellenorientalia. The Near Eastern Presence in the Bronze Age Aegean, ca. 3000-1100 B.C., plus Orientalia. A Catalogue of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Mitannian, Syro-Palestinian, Cypriot and Asia Minor Objects from the Bronze Age Aegean. SIMA Pocket-book 95, G?teborg, 1990, 240-41, pl. 63 no. 158.Author:
D. M.Photographs' metadata