0010 - Ivory

Ivory is usually abundant in Perdigões Chalcolithic tombs. Many and diversified objects were collected in the tholos type tomb 1 and tomb 2 and in the pits with secondary depositions of human cremated remains. But there, also fragments of tusks were recovered, showing that ivory raw material was also circulating and arriving to Perdigões and not just finished objects.
Some of this ivory was analyzed and the provenance is the African Bush Elephant  (Loxodonta africana).

This fragment of tusk is from Pit 40, a major feature with the deposition of human cremated remains, dated from the middle 3rd millennium BC.

For more information see publication here.