Events > Ivory
Image: Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Greek_Ivory_Votive_Offerings_(27852257474).jpg
A seminar and discussion about material religion and ivory. This online event will include talks by Georgina Muskett and Adam DiBattista.
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Talk abstracts
Georgina Muskett
In the ancient Mediterranean world ivory was considered both beautiful and desirable. The necessity of importing it and the requirement to employ specialist artisans to carve it into objects destined for domestic, funerary or votive use effectively restricted the acquisition of ivory objects to the elite.
Éλéφας (elephas), the Greek word for ivory, may suggest that only elephant ivory was used; however, in addition to the tusks of the Asiatic or African elephant, hippopotamus tusk was also employed in the ancient Mediterranean world. Other sources of ivory, such as whale and walrus, as well as narwhal tusk, were available in more northern regions. This is well demonstrated in the renowned Early Medieval ‘Liverpool Ivories’ in the collections of National Museums Liverpool.
Archaeological discoveries of ivory objects found in Ancient Greece, from the Early Iron Age onwards shed light on the use of this material. Spectacular evidence comes in the form of chryselephantine statues, magnificent in their use of gold and ivory, both extant examples from the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi and evidence of their manufacture from the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. In this talk, the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Lakonia will be used as a case study of ivory objects discovered in a votive context. The ivory votives will be considered alongside objects from the sanctuary made from other materials, particularly lead and terracotta, in the collections of National Museums Liverpool and the University of Liverpool.