Ivory

Ivory is a hard, white material taken from the tusks of elephants and the teeth of other animals. It is made mostly of dentin, a strong part found in teeth and tusks. People have used ivory for thousands of years to make beautiful carvings, tools, and even piano keys. Besides natural ivory, people can also make ivory from other materials like Tagua nuts.

Long ago, in places like the Indus Valley and the Harappan civilization, people traded ivory for many useful items such as pins, combs, and game pieces. Today, taking ivory from animals like African and Asian elephants is not allowed because these animals are in danger of disappearing. The word ivory comes from very old languages that talked about elephants.

Uses

Both the Greek and Roman civilizations used ivory to create valuable art, religious items, and decorative boxes. Ivory was often used for the white part of the eyes in statues.

There is some evidence that ancient Irish people used ivory from whales or walruses. A Roman writer said that Celtic people in Ireland decorated sword handles with the teeth of sea animals. A story tells of a religious leader giving a sword with ivory carvings as a gift.

In China, ivory has been highly valued for art and useful objects. Early records show that ivory was traded along ancient trade routes. Chinese artists carved ivory into many shapes, from religious images to parts of old smoking pipes. In Japan, ivory carving became popular in the 1600s, and many small decorative items were made.

In Southeast Asia, ivory was used to make airtight containers and official seals. In some areas, ivory was used for special knife handles and for religious statues.

Today, ivory is often carved into small decorative items, jewelry, and piano keys. Other animal teeth, like those from warthogs and whales, can also be carved.

In recent years, ivory has been used more for making souvenirs and jewelry. In Japan, the growing wealth led to more use of solid ivory name seals, which contributed to a big drop in African elephant numbers in the 1980s.

Consumption before plastics

Before plastics were created, ivory was used for many beautiful and useful things. Its white color made it perfect for making knife handles, billiard balls, piano keys, Scottish bagpipes, buttons, and many decorative items.

Since 1800, people have made synthetic materials to replace ivory for most of these uses. The billiard industry asked inventors to find a different material they could manufacture;^: 17  and the piano industry stopped using ivory for keys in the 1970s.

Ivory comes from the tusks and teeth of animals. Sadly, most ivory came from elephants that were killed for their tusks. For example, getting 40 tons of ivory in the 1930s needed killing around 700 elephants. Other animals, like hippos, were also hunted because their ivory was prized for making false teeth. In the early 1900s, the demand for ivory greatly reduced Kenyan elephant groups.

During the Art Deco time from 1912 to 1940, many European artists used ivory to make special statues called chryselephantine. Two well-known artists who often used ivory were Ferdinand Preiss and Claire Colinet.

Mechanical characteristics

Ivory is a strong and durable material that comes from the tusks and teeth of animals like elephants. It is made mostly of dentine, which is a special kind of tissue that gives ivory its hardness and strength. This makes ivory useful for making things like piano keys and other items that need to last a long time.

The special arrangement of materials in ivory helps it stay strong and resist breaking. Scientists have measured how tough ivory is and found it to be harder than many other materials, like certain plastics. The structure of ivory also changes depending on the direction you look at it, which adds to its unique properties.

Availability

Because there are fewer elephants and other animals that produce ivory, many countries have stopped allowing people to bring in or sell ivory. Before 1989, when a rule was made to stop trading African elephant ivory internationally, there were about 1.3 million African elephants, but this number dropped to around 600,000.

Some countries in Southern Africa say their elephant groups are doing well and that selling ivory could help take care of them. But other African countries worry that selling ivory again could make elephants more likely to be hurt by people looking for ivory.

In 2007, a website called eBay stopped people from selling ivory products from elephants internationally. This happened after many elephants were hurt to get their ivory. Later, in 2008, eBay stopped all ivory sales.

In 2019, a study showed that the number of elephants being hurt each year was going down. The study said that reducing the want for ivory in places like China and fixing problems like corruption and poverty in Africa could help protect elephants.

Controversy and conservation issues

Using and trading elephant ivory has become a big problem because it has caused many elephant groups to get smaller in many countries. In 1975, rules were made to stop trading ivory from Asian elephants internationally. In 1990, similar rules were made for African elephants.

In 2015, more than a ton of ivory that had been taken was broken up in New York City to show that trading ivory illegally will not be allowed. The group doing this said that up to 35,000 elephants in Africa are hurt each year because of the ivory trade.

China, which used to be the biggest place for ivory, said in 2015 that they would stop making and selling ivory products. The United States also said they would almost completely stop bringing in and sending out ivory.

Alternatives

Fossil mammoth tusks

People have been trading ivory from the tusks of woolly mammoths that died long ago and were frozen in the ground for 300 years, and this is still allowed. Mammoth ivory is used to make things like handmade knives. But mammoth ivory is rare and expensive because mammoths have been gone for a very long time, and scientists do not like selling pieces that could be kept in museums. Some think there are still 10 or more million mammoths buried in Siberia.

Fossil walrus ivory

In the United States, it is legal to buy and sell ivory from walruses that died before 1972, unlike many other kinds of ivory.

Elk ivory

Long ago, elk had teeth that stuck out like tusks, which helped protect them from other animals and show off during mating time. Over time, elk grew bigger antlers and their tusks got smaller. These teeth are similar to elephant ivory and can be taken without hurting the elk.

People from Native American tribes and First Nations in places like the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and Pacific Northwest have used elk teeth for making jewelry. Both men and women wore these pieces, which had special meanings. For women, it was thought to bring good luck and health. For men, it showed they were good hunters.

Synthetic ivory

Ivory can also be made artificially.

Nuts

A type of very hard nut is becoming popular as a replacement for ivory. It is sometimes called vegetable ivory, or tagua, and comes from a palm tree found in the rainforests of Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia.