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Sourcing African ivory in Chalcolithic Portugal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Thomas X. Schuhmacher ,
João Luís Cardoso  and
Arun Banerjee
Thomas X. Schuhmacher
Affiliation:
German Archaeological Institute Madrid, Serrano 159, E-28002 Madrid, Spain; Professur für Ur- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Otto-Friedrich Universität, Am Kranen 14, D-96045 Bamberg, Germany (Email: [email protected])
João Luís Cardoso
Affiliation:
Universidade Aberta (Lisboa), Centro de Estudos Arqueológicos do Concelho de Oeiras, Câmara Municipal de Oeiras, Fábrica da Pólvora de Barcarena, Estrada das Fontainhas, 2745-615 Barcarena, Spain (Email: [email protected])
Arun Banerjee
Affiliation:
International Centre of Ivory Study (INCENTIVS), Institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg University, Becherweg 21, D-55099 Mainz, Germany (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

A recent review of all ivory from excavations in Chalcolithic and Beaker period Iberia shows a marked coastal distribution – which strongly suggests that the material is being brought in by sea. Using microscopy and spectroscopy, the authors were able to distinguish ivories from extinct Pleistocene elephants, Asian elephants and, mostly, from African elephants of the savannah type. This all speaks of a lively ocean trade in the first half of the third millennium BC, between the Iberian Peninsula and the north-west of Africa and perhaps deeper still into the continent.

Keywords

IberiaPortugalChalcolithicBeaker periodBronze Ageivorymaritimeoceanstrade
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 322 , December 2009 , pp. 983 - 997
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

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