Carved Oliphant

An Oliphant is a hunting horn made from elephant ivory. Of the eighty extant oliphants, this example is octagonally faceted with wide bands of carved decoration at its base and mouth. Its lower band has a repeating inscription in Arabic ‘al-yumn’ (‘good fortune’), while the upper band presents a continuous frieze of hunters and animals, including two lions attacking a bull. Green stains and slightly paler patches of ivory suggest that this Oliphant was once covered with additional metal sheathing, which no doubt complimented the fine carving. Given the legible Arabic inscription and its Islamic decorative features – including the tircorn crown upon the archer, the vegetation and animal imagery – this Oliphant was made in either Fatimid Egypt or southern Italy (probably Sicily) where Arabic remained one of the Norman languages and Islamic aesthesis continued to influence local decoration, as seen in the Cappella Palatina ceiling in Palermo (built in 524-537 AH/1130-1143 CE). Oliphants were popularly used on hunting expeditions and would be blown to rouse game or signal other hunters; they were also used as drinking containers, plugging the small hole with a stopper.