Initially, elephant tusks served as material for making arrows, knives, spearheads, needles; often these items bore simple ornamentation. Over time, the depictions on bone carvings became increasingly complex, even including hunting scenes.
In Ancient Greece, ivory was used to create huge statues. There is still no consensus on whether these works of art were entirely made of the precious material or whether the statue was made of wood and only covered with ivory on the outside. This question cannot be resolved because not a single such sculpture has survived to our time.
Interesting fact: ancient hunters invented the myth of elephant graveyards. The idea of graveyards apparently occurred to them because people very rarely found ivory. In fact, the absence of elephant remains has a natural explanation – they were eaten by bone beetles, and many skeletons were burned in forest fires.
Nowadays, elephant hunting is strictly prohibited, so the use of their tusks is minimized. Mostly small items and jewelry are made from them, which are very well suited for polishing and carving.
The African continent is the main exporter of ivory. The quality of this product depends on the elephant's habitat. The highest quality tusks – translucent, hard, resistant to yellowing – are exported from Guinea. On the eastern coast, ivory is of lower quality – soft, darker in color and less translucent, easier to damage during transport. The tusks offered for sale usually weigh no more than 10 kilograms, but there are exceptions weighing up to 90 kilograms and up to 2.5 meters in length.
Before processing, the bone is moistened with water; this is necessary so that it does not crack due to the heat of the saw during cutting. All scraps left after sawing are carefully collected, as the prices for this material are very high. For sanding, they use horsetail with water and soaked pumice. The final touch is polishing. The best agent for it is honey; it must be rubbed into the item with a damp cloth.
Finished masterpieces, as in all times, most often adorn the apartments of people belonging to the upper class. They are meant to emphasize their social status. Interestingly, nowadays wealthy people also buy jewelry made from mammoth bone, sperm whale teeth, and walrus tusks. Representatives of the elite wear bone rings, bracelets, pendants, and earrings.
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