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| A short History Amber |
Amber properties
Amber
(succinite / retinite) is a fossil resin. The resin flowed out
the bark, probably after previous injury, dried up and hardened. There
is different flow forms like e.g. drops, mass flows and "drop-on-drop-flow"
called "shlaubs" (Schlauben). The later has more fossil inclusions,
because it resulted from thrust-wise resin flow. The sticky surface
caught the animals and the next resin flow covered them.
According
to scientist, the oldest well-known amber originates from the carbon
time and has an age of approximately 345 million years (Upper Carboniferous)
The oldest know amber containing insects comes from the Lower Cretaceous
(approx. 146 million years ago).. Baltic amber and Dominican amber are
"young", compared with it. The resins of these areas have extruded from
trees(during the tertiary age (25-50 million years). Copal is a much
younger resin which also is found in many places like Colombia and the
Dominican Republic, but its behavior is different from that of the "genuine"
(old) amber. Baltic amber is found at the coasts of the east and North
Sea andin the SAM countries' "blue earth". It originated in the old
Tertiary period approx. 40-50 million years ago in the area what today
would be Sweden and Finland.
In
the Baltic resin supplier was pinus succinifera, and/or other
conifers of the Araucaria Family (Araucariaceae). The amber-resin producing
trees of the Caribbean areawere the algarroba species. |
Leaf, seeds and flowers
Amber
can be found on all continents of the earth, with exception of the pole
regions, mainly at the east coast of the USA, Canada, Burma, Mexico, Lebanon,
Borneo, Romania and Sicily and other places. But most of these these offer
by far a smaller yield than the Baltic region and the Dominican Republic.
Therefore, most of the amber which is used in the commercial production
of jewellery comes from the Baltic region or the Dominican republic. The
Baltic area has the most productive and widely known occurrence in Europe. |
Amber Origins & Mining
The amber occurrences
in the Dominican Republic is not as old as the Baltic, but has much more
fossil inclusions of plants and small animals and for this reason is highly
appreciated by scientists and collectors alike. At few places in the Dominican
Republic a kind of amber can be found that has a blue glow even in daylight.
UV light strengthens this effect.
 |
| Monument 1, one
of the four Olmec colossal heads at La Venta. This one is nearly 3 meters
tall. |
Amber is considered a
gem stone. Amber has been traded since earliest times and was considered
a mystic and religious material. Over the "amber routes" it was distributed
throughout Europe and all of the know ancient world. Already the Phoenicians
traded amber as a prime commodity with the ancient Baltic peoples. Since
about 3000 B.C., Baltic amber was exchanged for goods from southern Europe
and there were even 'highways' or trade routes crossing Europe
and leading into the Far East.
In
Central America, the Olmec civilization also was mining amber around 3000
B.C. There are legends in Mexico that mention the use of amber in adorning,
consuming and using it for stress reduction as a natural remedy.
For
thousands of years amber was regarded as a precious substance, and for
its mysterious origin considered as a divine protection from harm to the
bearer of amber jewelry. As such, it also became to be used as an ingredient
in medicines and for religious purposes by "pagans" and "Christians".
Around 58 A.D., the Roman Emperor Nero sent a Roman knight on a search
for this "Gold of the North" and brought hundreds of pounds of amber to
Rome.
In
later days, from 1283 on, the Teutonic Knights, after returning from the
crusades, became absolute rulers of Prussia and the Baltic sources of
amber, as well as the manufacture of objects made of amber, punishing transgressors with death by hanging. For the next 500 years, ambar was
used again for mainly a religiouspurpose: Rosary beads, used by Catholics
and Moslems alike.
When
they arrived in 1492 at the Caribbean island of "La Hispaniola", Columbus
and his men were not interested in amber, but in gold and for this reason
the existence of amber from the Dominican Republic was little knownfor
a long time. But history tells us that Columbus received from a young
Taino prince apair of shoes decorated with Caribbean amber, in exchange
for a strand of Baltic amber beads that he had offered. |
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