Is this really how we should use the ivory of extinct animals?
 

http://www.luxist.com/2008/02/24/the...ury-chess-set/

I think this is a little ridiculous. How about putting this ivory into a museum or something? Geez...

I'll do you one better: sell the ivory and put the moneys toward establishing wildlife habitats in Africa.

With all due respect, it isn't the only mammoth ivory available, and mammoths have little to do with existing African wildlife.

Chess is a beautiful game, and this chess set could be a work of art. It isn't the only thing like it, however. We make things out of all kinds of material. It's better than using elephant ivory from recently slaughtered animals.

Besides, it's so pomo. :thumbsup:

I've actually considered this dilemma recently and came to the conclusion that most of the fossil ivory probably isn't worth putting in a museum and if not made into something, it will just lay there and eventually erode to nothing, thus adding nothing to anything.

So I vote to go ahead and use it.

Lebell, I see your point and part of me agrees with you. I think it just bothers me that such an old fossil of such a huge majestic animal that I've admired since my childhood is being made into a freaking chess set. lol

museums have lots of specimens, in fact many have lots of artifacts that you never even see because they are in the safe haven of specially climate controlled vaults, that costs money and space.

I'm with Lebell, get some use out of it. Get people to learn about chess, get them to learn about mammoths because they got to see or play with these pieces.

there is no shortage of mammoth ivory out there, and it does nothing but weather away if not used for something- also, it has been used for carvings and useful items for at least 2000 years- incidentally, many native peoples still use oosic for carvings and knife handles (google that sometime)

I don't know, but somehow it's a lot more fun to play chess with ivory than it is with plastic or magnetic pieces. I guess as long as they're not being killed to harvest their ivory, I don't see a problem.

First of all, this isn't a fossil. It is not fossilized, which is a process where the organic material gets replaced by inorganic.

Second, it's not like mammoth ivory is particularly rare. There's a whole bunch of it in downtown LA at the La Brea Tarpits. There has also been more found farther north in California in spots protected from wind and rain. It is scattered all over Siberia and Northern Canada. Mammoth finds don't exactly set off the newswires because they happen all the time given the climates where they're typically found.

Is this the best use of a relatively limited resource? No. I'd say it's more similar to making a necklace from Roman coins than making a chair from a T. Rex skull, though. It's too bad they ruined the original, but it's not like there isn't a lot more out there.

Go ahead and use it,but spend a lot of the profits on education and presevation of things that are endangered.......xoxoxoo

i wonder what feeling you get from playing a game made from an extinct species?

im thinking its a mix between power and awkwardness.