Ivory horn (oliphant) : This rare carved ivory tusk is an exceptional example of the dissemination and exchange of visual culture across the eastern Mediterranean among the Fatimids (909–1171), the Byzantine Empire, and the Italian city-states. One of a few examples surviving in major museum collections, it was carved in Sicily or southern Italy, with images derived from Fatimid court culture. The tusk is decorated with a hunting scene comprising real and mythical animals running in file across its length. The exquisite carved decoration on the horn, and the English silver mounts that were added in the seventeenth century, suggest that it may have served a ceremonial role. Its original function is understood by some as a hunting horn and by others as a wine horn.