rare 6,000-year-old ivory vessel made of elephant tusk Found in Israel

The broken ivory vessel deposited within the large basalt bowls. Photograph Davida Dagan, Antiquities Authority

Israeli archeologists have done it again. This time they uncovered a rare 6,000-year-old ivory vessel made of elephant tusk, dated to the Chalcolithic period, in an excavation in southern Israel.

The ivory vessel, they said, attests to trading ties with Egypt in the region stretching back to the Chalcolithic period. Found shattered to pieces in the excavation, it was “brought back to life” in the treatment laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority. It seems to be part of a cultic vessel deposit burial. The vessel will be displayed this Thursday at the annual Israel Prehistoric Society Conference.

The rare vessel is known in research as an “amphoriskos” (a small jar). This is the first time a Chalcolithic period ivory vessel has been found in our region. The vessel was found shattered to pieces in 2020. Brought to the Israel Antiquities Authority laboratories, it was restored in a complicated conservation process.

The excavation at Horbat Raqiq, near Beer Sheva, conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, uncovered an ancient settlement with subterranean spaces dug into the loess soil. Towards the end of the excavation, as Emil Aladjem, …., was making his last measurements, he discerned the edge of a basalt vessel. Consequently, the excavation was expanded, revealing three large impressive vessels. They were arranged such that two vessels were emplaced one in the other, with the third acting as a cover for them both. When the upper plate was removed, the lower plate was discovered to be full of earth, within which lay the shattered pieces of an ivory vessel – a rare and precious material.

“From the manner in which the bowls were arranged, the ivory vessel, which was broken already in antiquity, was clearly interred in a deliberate fashion—which would seem to attest to the importance attributed to it”, explained Dr. Ianir Milevski, former head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s prehistoric branch, also associated with the National Research Council of Argentina.

The vessels were intentionally set in a specific manner, with careful forethought. In academic circles it is generally accepted that figurine and broken vessel deposits and burials are part of cultic ceremonial activities.
“The vessel is 20 centimeters across. It is gorgeous, and exceptional in its design,” adds Dr. Milevski. “The small side handles are symmetrically arranged, with two handles set into the vessel’s neck and two additional handles vertically below them at its base. “

After its initial discovery, excavation directors Avishai Levi-Hevroni and Martin Pasternak of the Israel Antiquities Authority brought the vessels and their contents to the Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein National Archaeology Campus. In cooperation with Dr. Ianir Milevski and Dr. Liora Kolska Horwitz of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the team achieved the first understanding of the vessel’s nature – it was made from elephant tusk ivory. The conservation and restoration process led by Olga Negnevitsky, an expert in ivory conservation, was extremely complex and took much patience. The goal was to reconstruct the vessel out of its pieces unto its original form, while safeguarding its authenticity and historical value.

“This find deepens our understanding of the Chalcolithic period and of the cultural an exchange ties of our region with both neighboring and distant cultures,” say the researchers.

“One of the most interesting questions regarding this vessel,” add Levi-Hevroni and Dr. Milevski, “is whether the vessel was brought here fully designed, or whether the ivory tusk was brought here as raw material and then sculpted by a local craftsperson. The vessel is well-made, and makes maximum use of the original tusk – which was a most precious material. If it was manufactured here, it reveals the high standard of craftspeople who dwelt here, who knew how to treat ivory, and also knew elephant anatomy.”