11th Century Ivory Horn, Oliphant
Angela McDowell & Henry Maldonado
Professor Chandra
Arts of the Islamic World
16 November 2017
The Oliphant Horn is a large elephant tusk that's decorated with carvings and iron. The craving included interconnected circles that contained figures of birds, hares, goats, an elephant, an amphisboena and other creatures on the surface of the artwork. This work of art was used for both religious and secular purposes. It was made between the 11th and 12th century. The Oliphant has two possible place of origin which are Amalfi and Salemo. The structure of the horn consists of four narrow bands of foliage scrolls, one on both sides of two sunk bands. Throughout this essay features of the Oliphant Horn will be discussed including the following; the use of ivory and silver, the horn itself and it’s function, the carved figures around it, and it’s history. This will provide a better understand of what the Oliphant Horn is.
The Oliphant Horn had more than one purpose. It was believed that the horn had both religious and secular purposes. The function of the structure and the carvings around it helped portray the function of it for it’s different purposes. It’s horn shape and shallow interior worked as two different functions. The first function it has was as a horn. According to “The Met” which is the Metropolitan Museum of Art stated that it’s purpose was, “a horn to announce the hunt.” The sound would indicate as a beacon to hunt instead of using words with a scream which would scare the prey. Also another purpose the horn had was during the war. According to the “Aga Khan Museum” it stated that, “ the hero uses an oliphant as a sounding horn to warn Charlemagne’s army against the Muslim attack during the eighth-century Battle of Roncesvalles.” Similar to how the horn was used to announce the hunt during the war the horn was used to warn against attacks. In ancient time horns or any kind of loud beacon sound was the way to communicate or signal from long distances since they didn’t have much far distant communication methods. A different purpose that the shallow horn also gives is that it was like a storage for the powder used in guns. This was a useful tool when adding the powder into the gun because of its thin shallow end on one side. The other end with the wide shallow made it easier when adding the gunpowder into the horn. On the other hand the other purpose so divergent to war that the horn had was religious. According to “Aga Khan Museum” it described, “The exquisite carved decoration on this oliphant, and the silver mounts that were added in the seventeenth century, suggest it may have also served a ceremonial role.” The horn was a symbol of importance during ceremonial services which is a very important part of religion because it’s a moment of gathering where they worship their God. Another religious purpose the horn was that it was an instrument of God. According to “The Met” it described that, “Many were given to churches, and some served as reliquary containers. This example shows Christ as the Lamb of God.” It was an instrument in which God used to lead Christ into the direction he wanted him to go. This leads to the carvings around the horn and what they symbolize.
To add on, the exterior of the horn had carvings which according to “Aga Khan Museum” were, “decorated with a hunting scene with real and mythical animals running in file across its length” which in that era symbolized power, royalty, and a moral. The horn included carving of animals which in the Fatimids era would symbolize features of a person. For example, during a lecture in Arts of Islamic World in other artworks that were presented with animals on them symbolized that the artwork portrayed the characteristics of royalty and power if it was a dominant animal. A dominant animal would be like a lion or a tiger. These animals would represent someone who is in power during that present society for example like a chief, a king or someone at the top of the chain. Other animals that are weaker like mice or goats would represent the people under the person in charge for example the citizens to a country where the leader represent the more powerful animal. This ties back to the purpose of the Oliphant Horn which was used in war or for religious purposes. The carved stronger animals could be a symbol of power for the soldiers who would use the horn during their battles to warn/signal during battles or to store their gunpowder. On the more religious side animals carved into the horn like doves (birds) symbolize God in a religion which is why they would use the horn during ceremonial services. These same animals would also be used as characters for stories during that time. During that century moral stories. These animals would be used in the stories to show the power in the animal with morals to symbolize real life morals for the readers to know during that time.
The Oliphant Horn was fundamentally crafted from ivory and silver. The use of ivory in the Fatimid Era came about after ivory was recognized as a luxury object in most countries of the world. Trade for ivory tusks was originated in parts of India and Africa, though it was a small amount of ivory tusks it was still a major medium of exchange. The purchasing of Ivory was limited to sizes smaller than the tusks, due to the natural estate of tusks being no more than 2 meters in length, though since the material was a natural substance it was easily accessible through the work of local hunters. Ivory is a dense substance with a calm cream tone and grainy texture which allow the substance to be carved, engraved, and polished to the artist's desires. Ivory was often times used in the creation of decorative pieces such as small accessories as a sign of luxury. It was later recognized as an inlay, a decorative cover, for much larger pieces, an example would be carving designs into the tusks pieces and later overlying furniture with the carved tusk. Under the rule of the Fatimids any product made up of ivory and even the production of ivory became a symbol of power, especially considering that The Umayyad Empire had also been successful in the production of ivory during the same period. At the time, ivory was the most efficient way of creating horns, the Oliphant horn served it’s purpose as a hunting horn, because of it’s original arched shape allowed tusks to compose an echoing sound.
The Oliphant horn served as a purpose of a hunting horn, it’s a wonder how various individuals may still have little knowledge or an idea of what the horn is and was. There was a production of many different pieces of ivory which were distributed internationally, through the Oliphant horn managed to still be recognized today. The Oliphant horn as previously stated was used as a hunting mechanism, according to the Colombia’s University the horn was also present during times of war. For instance, the horn was blown to advise that a guest or intruder was entering the premises while simultaneously warming the one entering that he or she was walking or entering someone’s property. Another purpose it served in accordance to Columbia University were also traditional, meaning the horns fulfilled the purpose of being utilized in the context of myths, it is said that one of the well known traditions was giving a warrior a tusks filled with wine to drink, on a warrior's arrival back home, and if any of wine spilled it would signify that the warrior’s wife had been disloyal during their time abroad. Though during times of war the horns were blown as a sign of war, in other words that the horn was blown to indict wars, the horn was not only to symbolize the initiation of the battle or war, but was also blown in result of victory. One of the most famous Oliphants is said to be the one which belonged to Frankish knight, Roland, story tells that he led Charlemagne's army with the horn and once arriving at the battle of Roncevaux, realizing they had too little men and will be overpowered, but Roland refused to call out for help through the use of the horn resulted in majority of his men dead and the battle lost.
The Oliphant served through several centuries under the rule of many dynasties, with several different purposes. Purposes that led to fateful impact came from the context and form of the Oliphant. The horn and the use of ivory both played a major role in all the dynasties because , once again, the oliphant was utilized for many different reasons whether as a medium of exchange, determining the state of war, and even as a sign of luxury, as well as power. Though today, horns have been replaced by other substances less expensive and far more accessible, since hunting for ivory is only legal in a minimal number of locations.
Word Count: 1523
Work Cited
“Ivory Horn (Oliphant).” Aga Khan Museum, 13 Jan. 2017, www.agakhanmuseum.org/collection/artifact/ivory-horn-oliphant-akm809.
“Horn |.” V&A Search the Collections, collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O93335/horn/.
“Oliphant | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.190.218/.
Kroger , Jens. “Discover Islamic Art .” Discover Islamic Art - Virtual Museum - object_ISL_de_Mus01_11_en, www.discoverislamicart.org/database_item.php?id=object%3BISL%3Bde%3BMus01%3B11%3Ben.
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