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GOLD
OF THE BALTIC SEA Amber... What is it? What
is its origin? What is it used for? You will find the
answers to these and many more questions on this
page. Ancient
Phoenicians used the word yainitar to name amber, and this
has a clear association with many words for Baltic amber
used today. Amber is called: and its English and French names are
derived from the old Arabic word "anbar". Amber
is fossilized resin or sap of pine trees which grew in
forests around 55-45 million years ago. Amber comes in such
an assortment of forms that scientists could not conclude if
all this variety could be explained by different conditions
of forming a fossil, or if each form is from a different
species of pine. While amber has appeared naturally in
various parts of the world, it is well recognized that
Baltic Amber is the oldest and most valued of all. Most
often, amber is known in its warm, translucent deep yellow
form. But it is found in a full range of colors, from dark
brown up to light golden yellow. Rarely, amber appears in an
opaque form with colors ranging from white through ivory
(often called ‘bone amber’). Occasionally, inserts
will appear in select pieces such as pre-historic plants or
even insect life, which was accidentally trapped and
preserved through the ages. It gives the scientists in
insight into the flora and fauna 50 million year ago. Demand
is especially strong for amber with insects inside. "Amber
is like a time capsule made and placed in the earth by
nature herself," said David Federman, author of Consumer
Guide to Colored Gemstones. "It has helped paleontologists
reconstruct life on earth in its primal phases. More than
1,000 extinct species of insects have been identified in
amber." Could
a mosquito trapped in amber hold dinosaur DNA? Most amber
just isn't old enough, celebrating maybe 25 to 50 million
birthdays at most. The dinosaurs died out 65 million years
ago at the end of the Cretaceous period. The Jurassic period
was 144 million years ago. But in 1994, Dr Raul Cano of
California Polytechnic state University at San Luis Obispo,
a molecular biologist, reported in the British journal
Nature that he and his colleagues had extracted DNA from a
weevil that was trapped in amber 120 to 135 million years
ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The
amber, which was from the Lower Cretaceous period, was mined
in the mountains of Lebanon south of Beirut by Aftim Acra,
who has a collection of amber pieces containing 700 insects,
including termites, moths, caterpillars, spiders,
pseudoscorpions, and midges, which do suck blood. One
of the first substances used for decoration, it was an
object of trade and barter for Baltic peoples. The oldest
piece of amber altered by man was found in the area of
Hannover, Germany. It was dated at approximately 30,000
years old! It probably served as an amulet (good luck
charm). Thousands of archeological findings in Central
Europe have proven that amber was used by prehistoric humans
for personal embellishment and glorification of religious
rituals. One archeological excavation found a center of
amber craft which existed around 3000 B.C. in today's
Lithuania. The biggest discovery was made just recently, in
the 1980's, several miles east of Gdansk, Poland. There,
various settlements engaged in amber craft between 2100 B.C.
and 1700 B.C. Only one settlement (Niedzwiedziowka) was
thoroughly examined. More than 30,000 pieces of crafted
amber were identified. It is believed that about 900
independent amber craft shops existed in a one-half square
mile. The two main sources of amber on the market today are
the Baltic states and the Dominican Republic. Amber from the
Baltic states is older, and therefore preferred on the
market, but amber from the Dominican Republic is more likely
to have insect inclusions. The largest amber mine in the
Baltic region is in Russia, west of Kaliningrad. Baltic
amber is found in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland,
Russia, and occasionally washed up on the shores of the
Baltic Sea as far away as Denmark, Norway, and England.
Other amber sources include Myanmar (formerly Burma),
Lebanon, Sicily, Mexico, Romania, Germany, and
Canada. In
ancient Greece amber became widely valued around 1600 B.C.
Greeks were fascinated by it. In their mythology, amber was
made from the tears of a nymph as they dropped into water.
In The Odyssey, Homer describes an amber necklace belonging
to a distinguished Phoenician merchant, and he also mentions
amber jewellery - earrings and a necklace of amber beads -
as a princely gift. Another ancient writer, Nicias, said
that amber was the juice or essence of the setting sun
congealed in the sea and cast up on the shore. The ancient
Greek word for amber is “elektron“, meaning -
originating from the Sun. The Greeks called amber elektron,
or sun-made, perhaps because of this story, or perhaps
because it becomes electrically charged when rubbed with a
cloth and can attract small particles. The Greeks were also
the first to describe the electrostatic properties of amber.
No wonder that many hundreds of years later this word was
used to name electricity. From
Greece, amber went to other Mediterranean nations. Articles
made with Baltic amber were found in the tomb of King
Tutankhamon, 1400 B.C., and in Mesopotamia, 900
B.C. Ancient
Romans loved amber as well. Jewellery, decorative articles,
dice, and amulets were made with amber, but only for the
rich. Pliny the Elder complained that a small amber
statuette of a man was more expensive than a man alive and
healthy (he meant a slave). Emperor Nero was a great
connoisseur of amber. To bring more amber, trade expeditions
were made to the Baltic sea. The Romans sent armies to
conquer and control amber producing areas. The extent of the
amber trade can be illustrated by the fact that more than
70,000 ancient Roman coins have been found in what is now
Poland. And how many still lie buried in the
ground? The
ancient Germans burned amber as incense, so they called it
Bernstein, or "burn stone." Clear colorless amber was
considered the best material for rosary beads in the Middle
Ages due to its smooth silky feel. Certain orders of knights
controlled the trade and unauthorized possession of raw
amber was illegal in most of Europe by the year
1400. Many
myths and legends surround the origin of amber. Ovid writes
that when Phaeton, a son of Phoebus, the sun, convinced his
father to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun across
the sky for a day, he drove too close to the earth, setting
it on fire. To save the earth, Jupiter struck Phaeton out of
the sky with his thunderbolts and he died, plunging out of
the sky. His mother and sister turned into trees in their
grief but still cried mourning him. Their tears, dried by
the sun, are amber. "Stone
Age man imbued amber with supernatural properties and used
it to wear and to worship," Mr Federman said. "Amber took on
great value and significance to, among others, the
Assyrians, Egyptians, Etruscans, Phoenicians, and Greeks. It
never completely went out of vogue since the Stone Age.
Between 1895 and 1900, one million kilograms of Baltic amber
were produced for jewellery." Throughout
history, people have believed that amber has actual healing
characteristics. Also today some anti-rheumatic ointments
are supplemented with amber. A piece of raw amber looks like
a stone, but when held gives a deep feeling of warmth. When
heated, amber will emit a gentle resin scent, and it cleans
the environment in which it rests. These sensations make
people feel better and believe in the healing power of
amber. For centuries amber was used to massage sore muscles,
and in powdered form, it was mixed with honey, oil and
alcohol into ointments good for almost every illness. Every
European pharmacy store in the 19th century offered mystical
amber mixtures. Now, of course, they are replaced by
sophisticated pharmaceutical products, but many people still
believe that an amber bracelet will ease rheumatic pain, and
amber coral beads supposedly help in cases of thyroid
illnesses. There are other healing effects described in
articles dealing with natural medicine: amber helps to cure
a sore throat, especially during teething in babies, and if
it is kept in water or wine for 1-14 days, the liquid can be
used for stomach ache, asthma and as a styptic medication.
No one knows how much it truly heals, but it certainly does
no harm. Anyhow, it is believed that wearing amber
contributes to a purification of the human mind, body, and
spirit. It is also believed to activate unconditional love
in mankind, stimulate the intellect, and open the crown
chakra. Amber is widely used today in traditional Oriental,
Arabic and Persian medicine. Astrologically, amber is a
stone of the Zodiac sign of the
Twins. Amber
occurs as irregular masses, nodules, or drops that are
transparent to translucent and have a yellow color,
sometimes tinted red, orange, or brown. It may be clouded by
innumerable minuscule air bubbles or contain fossilized
insects or plants. Its hardness is 2-3, luster resinous, and
its specific gravity is 1.05-1.09 g/cm³. Softening
occurs at about 150° C, and melting takes place at 250
– 350° C. Amber is particularly abundant along the
shores of the Baltic Sea where it is mined extensively from
tertiary glauconite sands that are from 40 million to 60
million years old. The components of amber in approximate
values are: carbon (80%), hydrogen (10%), oxygen (10%), and
small quantities of sulphur. Nowadays
amber is popular in jewellery and as a decorative material.
Depending on its composition amber comes in all varieties of
colours: from golden, yellow, cognac or cherry, transparent
and opaque, to ivory, brown, green (containing moss), black
(containing bark of trees or floor coverings of the forest),
semi-transparent and opaque; the rare varieties are blue and
cherry. The reason of opaque colour are up to 900 000 small
bubbles per square millimeter. When amber was heated by the
sun, the surface of the stone became weaker and oxygen was
evapourating; this process is called natural clearing. Today
this job is performed for the manufacturers by special
autoclave machines within one or two days. The sparkling
effects are caused by applying different temperatures to
certain parts of the stone. Jewellers
use not only natural cut or heated sparkling amber, but also
pressed amber, the latter looking more like glass imitation.
Using this technique small pieces of amber (called amber
sand, or amber dust) are heated up to 320° C and
pressed in the shape of plates, cylinders or whatever other
form. Natural cut or heated amber is much more beautiful and
expensive than pressed one which never sparkles. Beware of
possible plastic imitations! Here are some tips how you can
test your amber for genuineness: when burned, amber has a
pleasant specific tar smell, and plastic smells badly;
natural amber remains on the surface of a strong saline
solution, while plastic will remain on the bottom. If your
natural amber jewel is not shining, you can polish it gently
with mild toothepaste. Most
amber jewellery is hand made, and the process of its
creation consists in manual grinding of the weather beaten
crust, oxidation, shaping, polishing and drilling. At some
stages of amber processing machines are employed as
well. Now
that you know almost everything about amber,
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