Amber and baltic amber have been used in Europe beginning in the early Upper Paleolithic, although no evidence for widespread interchange that long ago has been discovered. In 2000, custom officials from Kaliningrad donated 2.5 tons of newly mined amber for the restoration of the Amber Room, which is what is illustrated in the photograph on this page.
The earliest evidence that amber was known about, mined, and worked with in the Baltic Sea/Gdansk area dates from between 8000 - 4000 B. C. Amber stores were heavily guarded by the watchful supervision of the local potentate’s “Beach Master,” and the unauthorized collection of amber could merit capital punishment.
The amber market crashed, and Polish craftsmen were not permitted to work at their craft. Amber is still mined in the same region, however the primitive hand tools have been replaced with modern digging equipment. Between the 10th and 15th centuries AD, the wide variety of amber goods included beads, amulets, dice, pawns, pendants, and rings. All routes led south towards the Black Sea, reaching Rome via the Roman Aquilea tract and Greece via the Hellenic Alexandropolis route. The Vistula amber earrings route linked the Gdansk Coastal area with the Mediterranean countries and was travelled as early as the 5th century B.C.
Therefore, given copious resin producing trees and appropriate burial conditions, amber is preserved in sedimentary clay, shale, and sandstones associated with layers of lignite, a woody brown coal.
The river followed a fault in the geological strata taking a roughly Southeast route starting near the city of Ystad and it has been tracked as far as Northern Själland.
The river followed a fault in the geological strata taking a roughly Southeast route starting near the city of Ystad and it has been tracked as far as Northern Själland. The route of these ancient rivers is detailed in the following map.He wrote that the wearing of an amber necklace can eliminate goitres, a swelling of the neck due to the enlargement of a thyroid gland, which is a symptom of an advanced stage of illness. Grimaldi in his latest book ‘Amber - Window to the Past’ refers to current research (not specified) which may at last resolve this mystery. From this it can safely be presumed that this tree was capable of producing the resin which would transform over millions of years into amber.
Archaeologists are interested in identifying Baltic amber as opposed to locally available amber, because its presence outside of its known distribution is an indication of long-distance trade.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.