Updated: Dec 29, 2021 By no means definitive, hundreds of books have been written about every aspect of amber you can think of!
Here we touch briefly upon ancient beliefs about amber, once named elektron by the Greeks.
Elektron is the root of our English word, electricity.
Amber has fascinated humans for thousands of years. " Thousands of years ago people were fascinated by the extraordinary, inexplicable properties of the golden pebbles found on beaches and in coastal forests.
The stone burnt when cast into the fire, exuding a pleasant resinous smell and aromatic smoke, and, when rubbed, attracted various small light items towards itself as if by magic.
The stone interior would often hide small undamaged plants and insects, which must also have found their way inside by magic.
That sufficed to arouse the curiosity of primitive man, with admiration & respect for this unusual gem.
It is no wonder man started attributing magical powers to amber." --excerpt from The Great Book of Amber by Elzbieta Mierzwinska A Brief History of Baltic Amber Amber stirs the soul, delights the eye, warms the heart and excites the world's scientific imagination.
Amber, an organic plastic, has the unique & singular ability to encompass and preserve the organic materials it encounters, like the the proverbial fly trapped in honey.
Baltic amber is approximately 40-60 million years old and was held dear by many ancient cultures, treasured both for protective & decorative qualities.
In modern western times, the movie Jurassic Park caused a surge of popular interest in this gemstone.
However, amber has long commanded the hearts and minds of humans--in fact, it has commanded whole economies.
Inside the plant material and insects, it has encapsulated, strands of DNA--life's basic code--are also captured.
This is why amber is often referred to as a "Window to the Past." Common inclusions are plant materials such as oak leaf remnants or tiny hairs from oak buds, pollens, spores, leaves, twigs and most famously of all- insects.
At least 214 plant species have been identified through morphological analysis of amber.
The scientific study of amber has yielded a bounty of priceless data about the ancient world which but for the golden fist of amber's preservation would have been lost to the ages.
Picture of an amber map made out of amber.
On display at the Kaliningrad Amber Combine, Russia The Amber Road The ancient amber trade routes brought faraway nations into contact with one another and served as a communications and trade hub.
As a luxury item found only in a few widely dispersed areas, amber was one of the few products deemed worthy of transporting such long and arduous distances.
From the Baltic Sea, down the Elbe River, and on to the Danube, one can trace the ancient amber trade routes.
Amber was one of the first commercial products and has been traded for centuries.
It has been found in the form of pendants dating from the Paleolithic Era (c. 12,000 B.C.).
Evidence of amber jewelers' workshops has been discovered by archeologists tied to the Neolithic period.
It is during this time that caches of amber are also found embedded beneath the foundations of houses- possibly intended to ensure the good fortune of the occupants.
The ancient Amber Way led first from the North by water, from Jutland down the Elbe, from Western Pomerania down the Oder, to Bohemia, through Pomerania down the Vistula, and from the Samland Peninsula to the Black Sea Coast.
Then, overland, through the Brenner Pass into Italy, the heart of the Roman Empire.
During the 1st-4th Centuries BC, it was the Celts who re-established what would have been even to them, much more ancient trade roads previously dominated by others, including the Phoenicians.
Amber artefacts from various periods have been found in Mycenae shaft graves (Greece) as well as finds in Babylonia and Egypt (Tutenkhamen's tomb) & even in Brighton (UK) where a particularly famous amber cup from a burial mound is housed.