Sixth- and Seventh-Century Elephant Ivory Finds from the Carpathian Basin • The Sources, Circulation and Value of Ivory in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Sixth- and Seventh-Century Elephant Ivory Finds from the Carpathian Basin • The Sources, Circulation and Value of Ivory in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Summary/Abstract: The present paper seeks to examine the available data on the possible sources and monetary value of elephant ivory, both as raw material and finished products, in the Roman to late antique Mediterranean world in order to gain a better understanding of the wider context of elephant ivory artefacts dating from the sixth and seventh centuries discovered in the Carpathian Basin. After reviewing the written and material evidence on the dynamics of the Mediterranean elephant ivory trade from the Hellenistic period until the Early Middle Ages, our main conclusion is that the raw material of the sixth- to seventh-century ivory objects of the Middle Danube Region in in all probability originated from Africa, possibly from the continent’s eastern parts, and arrived to this area through the Mediterranean. It is further argued that the few artefacts manufactured of elephant ivory in the eastern and central regions of the Mediterranean that reached the Carpathian Basin cannot be regarded as extremely expensive luxury goods – in fact, their majority would have been quite affordable to customers of more modest means.

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