Although elephant meat and skin have never been very valuable, the elephant tusk, ivory, has been widely valued since the  time of the Egyptians. Greeks used ivory for their chryselephantine statues, in which ivory represented skin. In Byzantine times, ivory book covers, boxes, and even thrones decorated the estates of the rich. Even the near extinction of the elephant only temporarily diminished the demand for ivory. It was not until the 21st century that geneticists replenished the elephant population.