One of the most interesting aspects of the Late Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant (c. 4500–3900 cal BC), a period marking notable societal transformations and developments in economy, craft and cult, was the appearance of ivory objects. Ivory, originating from the tusks of elephants and hippopotamuses, suddenly appeared in this period in low quantities and only at a few sites, restricted mainly to the northern Negev, Judean Desert and the central Mediterranean coastal plain. The current paper discusses the Late Chalcolithic ivory objects found in the southern Levant and suggests that we should not merely view these finds as artistic objects charged with symbolic value, but rather, we should acknowledge the role of the specific raw material from which they were made, for its social and economic values based on the likely non-local origin of the ivory and the inherent difficulty in its acquisition. These factors bestowed the ivory items with special significance and prestige value that differentiated them from other more common bone tools. Moreover, we suggest that although these findings reflect contacts, albeit limited between the southern Levant and Predynastic Egypt.

黎凡特南部红铜时代晚期（约公元前 4500-3900 年）最有趣的方面之一是象牙制品的出现，这一时期标志着显着的社会变革以及经济、工艺和崇拜的发展。象牙起源于大象和河马的象牙，在这一时期突然出现，数量很少，而且只出现在少数地点，主要限于内盖夫北部、朱迪亚沙漠和地中海中部沿海平原。本文讨论了黎凡特南部发现的红铜时代晚期象牙制品，并建议我们不应仅仅将这些发现视为具有象征价值的艺术品，而应该承认制造它们的特定原材料的作用，其社会和经济价值基于象牙可能的非本地产地及其获取的固有困难。这些因素赋予了象牙制品特殊的意义和声望价值，使它们有别于其他更常见的骨工具。此外，我们认为，尽管这些发现反映了黎凡特南部和前王朝埃及之间的接触，但仅限于接触。