Ivory Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Ivory is the hard, mellow-colored dentine substance of elephant and walrus tusks (the upper incisors). The teeth of the hippopotamus and the sperm whale resemble tusk ivory and also carry commercial value. Elephant ivory, however, is the most soughtafter type, deriving from the African or Indian elephant. Wooly mammoth and mastodon ivory is also popular, the remains of which are found in Canada, America, and Siberia. Connoisseurs note a difference in the quality of “live” and “dead” ivory, the former from recently deceased animals and the latter having lain in the ground for thousands of years. Live ivory is more resilient and resists cracking and is therefore preferred. The high value placed on live ivory, however, is driving the African elephant into extinction. For millennia, people have worked ivory because it is easier to carve than bone, serving therefore as a medium for detailed sculptures and, when cut, emitting an oily substance that is amenable to a high polish. Ivory is also simple to bleach or paint. In addition to its use in the creation of jewelry and sculptures, ivory has also been cut into plates and used for book covers and inlay.

Upper Paleolithic peoples (40,000-12,000 B.C.E.) were the first to carve the tusks of mammoth and mastodon into beads and religious amulets. With access to elephant and hippopotamus ivory from Nubia, the Egyptians used ivory for a wide range of items. It was with the Classical-era Mediterranean (500 B.C.E.-500 C.E.), however, that massive amounts of ivory flooded the consumer market. An increasing demand in ivory corresponded especially with the beginning of the Roman Empire, when it was used to create, for example, musical instruments, statues, furniture, floor coverings, chariots, and birdcages. The Emperor Caius Caligula built a stable of ivory for his horse, and the philosopher Seneca owned 500 tables with ivory legs. By the late 1st century, supplies of African ivory had diminished, but the Indian market maintained steady supplies to Rome. Indian elephant tusks are significantly smaller, more easily breakable, and have a less beautiful natural color than those of African elephants, whose tusks can reach up to 3.5 meters in length with a cross-section of eight inches. The east coast of sub-Saharan Africa, therefore, was the major supplier of the best ivory during the Late Antique and Medieval periods. Byzantine Christians in particular employed ivory in religious sculptures. In northern Europe and Russia, however, the elites began to make use of a new supply ivory from walrus tusks; albeit inferior, it was accessible.

However great, the impact of the ancient and medieval demand on ivory-producing animals was negligible compared to the devastation wrought in modern times. Ivory was used increasingly for such mundane objects as piano keys and billiard balls. A dramatic decline in African elephant populations coincided especially with the expansion of East Asian markets, notably Japan. From 1979 to 1989, the African elephant population fell from 1.3 million to 750,000. A worldwide ban on the ivory trade in 1989 had mixed results. Illegal poaching continued in all African countries. While the creation of wildlife reserves helped, an estimated 80 percent of African elephants lived in unprotected areas. As elephant populations slowly returned, several African countries urged for a partial lifting of the ivory ban, and dispensation was granted to South Africa and Zimbabwe, to allow the legal hunting of African elephant ivory.

Bibliography:

George Frederick Kuntz, Ivory and the Elephant in Art, in Archaeology, and in Science (Doubleday, 1916);
David Pearce, , Elephants, Economics, and Ivory (Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2001);
Ike Snug and Urs Kreuter, Elephants and Ivory: Lessons from the Trade Ban (Coronet Books, 1994).