Paper short abstract:

This paper outlines the available archaeological evidence concerning the trade and circulation of elephant ivory during the Early Modern period, focusing on Luso-African material.

Paper long abstract:

Humans have used ivory as a raw material for crafting objects for millennia. During the 16th century a considerable amount of elephant and hippopotamus ivory was procured and traded from Africa, and moved over long distances as part of Portuguese sea voyages around the globe. This external demand for ivory fed into pre-existing internal trade networks and in some localities also triggered changes to indigenous ivory working practices and spheres of meaning. Whereas the intricately worked finished ivory products (such as Luso-African oliphants) of these commodity networks have received considerable scholarly attention, much less is known about the precise source of this ivory, its global distribution, or about other coeval ivory working practices. This paper begins with a review of the available archaeological evidence regarding these topics, with a focus on West African contexts and global shipwreck data. We then focus on the evidence from a Portuguese nau wrecked off southern Namibia circa 1530, and the results of ongoing bioarchaeological analyses of the ivory tusks it was carrying. Historical sources suggest a number of possible routes for the voyage of this vessel. Using bioarchaeoogical methods (ancient DNA and stable isotope analyses), it is possible to also source the artefacts directly, thus highlighting African trade networks in the 16th century. The combination of the two techniques within a historical context therefore provides separate but complementary lines of evidence for understanding where ivory extraction occurred, revealing the expansive network of ivory procurement for uses such as carving the Luso-African ivories.