IVORY AS A MEASURE OF THE EXCESSES OF THE WORLD

The creamy-white tusks of the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus and other animals. Though hard, and having a density about 3 1/2 times as great as seasoned cedar wood, it is highly elastic and is easily carved or tooled. The tusk of the African elephant was harder and preferred by ancient craftsmen. Herds of Asian (sometimes termed "Syrian") elephants were found in North West Mesopotamia and Syria until they were hunted to extinction ca 700. The lower teeth of hippopotamus were a rare source of ivory noted for its high quality and brilliance.
The ivory was used in a variety of ways beginning in the Chalcolithic period (4500 and 3500 BC) and continuing throughout the biblical period. Ivory was used for figurines, furniture, paneling, inlays, cosmetic boxes, spoons, game boards and game pieces, writing tablets, combs, and pins.
The ivory craftsmen utilized a variety of tools to carve, incise, saw, drill, and polish the raw material. They were mobile, moving to and from various centers known for the ivory trade.
Large caches of ivory have been found in Palestine (Meggido, Samaria), Syria, North Western Mesopotamia (Ugarit, Arslan Tash, Tell Tainat, and Zincirli), and Assyria (Nimrod, Nineveh, and Khorsabad).
Ivory appears frequently in Assyrian booty and tribute lists throughout the 9th and 8th centuries. Menahem included ivory as tribute to Tiglath-pileser III while Sennacherib received ivory from Hezekiah in 701. Assyrian kings utilized ivory in their palaces, but more often as decorative inlays for furniture, a fact richly confirmed by the wealth of ivory carvings recovered from Nineveh, Nimrod and Khorsabad. Assyrian kings stockpiled ivory as a much priced measure of status of wealth.
Ahab's "ivory house"(1Kings 22:39) at Samaria symbolized the corrupt luxury of a pagan court condemned by Amos (Amos 3:15). Amos' condemnation of "those who recline on beds of ivory." Amos viewed them as a symptom of the callous disregard on the part of Israel's privileged class for the social abuse perpetrated upon the poor.
The city of Tyre, in her great sea commerce, inlaid the prows of her boats with ivory. Ivory is also listed among the costly things of ancient Tyre's traders, as well as in the stock of the 'traveling merchants of the earth" who weep over the fall of Babylon the Great. (Ezekiel 27:6, 15; Rev. 18: 11, 12).