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Why was ivory readily available in ancient China’s Huang He region?

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Inupiat shaman's figure. — ivory carving Kinugumiut Inupiat incised walrus ivory shaman's figure, c. 1890; in the National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center, Smithsonian Institution, New York City.

In ancient China, ivory was readily available in the Huang He (Yellow River) region because elephants still roamed the forests of that area during that period, making the supply of ivory close at hand for early artisans.1