What is amber

What is amber?

Amber is the fossilized resin that has seeped from the ancient pine forests growing approximately 40 million years ago. The aromatic resin dripped and oozed down from the trees filling the internal fissures and trapping seeds, leaves, feathers and insects.

The resin then became buried and fossilized. Fossilization takes millions of years and involves progressive oxidization and polymerization. There is no one tree responsible for the resin that turns into amber by fossilization. The trees could have resembled the Kauri tree found today in New Zealand. Kauri gum was found by early settlers to New Zealand and exported back to Europe in the 19th century. It is softer than Baltic amber which is the oldest and hardest resin gemstone. Kauri gum or resin is called a copal and is not considered an Amber gemstone. Kauri copal is less than one million years old.

Amber in the Baltic region.

The Baltic Sea region has been the original source of amber from prehistoric times. Use of it was made in Stone Age times and has been found in Egyptian tombs from 3200 years B.C. It has been found in some hundred Neolithic burial sites in Germany Poland and Lithuania Latvia and Estonia. It is found in Scandinavia also. Amber has also been found in various U.S. states, Mexico, South America, Canada, Burma, Japan and Greenland. Most of the amber is in the range of 30 to 90 million years old.

The major supply of Baltic amber comes from a 1,000 square kilometre area of the Samland Peninsula, which is now known as the Kaliningrad region. The Kaliningrad amber mines supply 99% of the Baltic amber collected. Up until the 19th century amber was mined and gathered by hand from the sea. During the later part of the 19th century mining operations became much more sophisticated as they began dredging and mining for amber. Since then millions of kilograms of Baltic amber have been mined. A small town in the Kaliningrad region has the world’s largest amber mine.

If we talk about amber being a valuable gemstone we have in our minds Amber of the Baltic Sea. It is by no means a coincidence that amber is called tears of the sea. In ancient times people gathered amber from the Baltic region and made ornaments and jewellery. Women wore multicoloured amber necklaces and on their coats brooches of amber.

One of the biggest treasure troves of Baltic amber jewellery, consisting of 433 amber items including amulets, necklaces, brooches and beads was found in Juodkrante. As in ancient times the cultural and aesthetic aspects of amber are still closely associated with the Lithuanian nation. A wonderful amber museum was established in the old manor house of Count Tiskevicius, located in the beautiful park of Lithuania in the town of Palanga.

The museum houses 5,000 exhibits of amber including ancient amber ornaments and jewellery and one off items created by contemporary jewellers. People come to admire these jewellery items of rare beauty.