Cultures which are known to have actively traded in amber included Unetice, Otomani, Wessex, Globular Amphora, and, of course, Roman. 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.
During prehistoric times, wind and waves coming ashore from the Baltic Sea formed what is known as the Curonian Spit on Poland and Lithuania’s famous “Amber Coast.” Running southwest to northeast, the spit varies in width from 530 yards to 2 miles and is sixty miles long. The illustration to the right showing an amber-fisher is from ‘Succini prussici physica et civilis historia’ in 1297.
Yet, amber art in Gdansk flourished again under the rule of Casimir the Jagiellonian, who bestowed the city with land rich in amber deposits. Thus, amber gathering and working took its place alongside bee-keeping, hunting, and fishing, and became a common occupation. Amber was always present in their culture. Perhaps no civilization was fonder of amber than that of Rome. 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.
A generalized interpretation of the depositional conditions present in Kansas amber-bearing strata is that a transgressing or advancing Cretaceous sea in north-central Kansas led to deposition and preservation of fluvial, estuarine, and lagoon or bay deposits behind a barrier island system. The geological reason for the concentration of amber rings in this region has been described by a number of authorities N.O. Holst, the Swedish State Geologist referred to an ancient river called the ‘Alnarps’ which he wanted to call the ‘Amber River’.
None of these geological entities exist today. This conclusion was originally made by Aycke in 1853. An This conviction has been recently confirmed by Albert Bogdasarov, a Byelorussian mineralogist who recommends the wearing of amber necklace, especially by children, in areas of intense radiation caused by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster. of this sort was one of the most important ways that people of the early Bronze Age could display their power and influence. But, two recent pine tree genera’s have been found which do possess succinic acid in their resin, they are Keteleeria and Pseudolarix. Pseudolarix is therefore beginning to look more likely as the true source of the Baltic Amber deposits. Shoved around northern Europe by glaciers and river channels, lumps of genuine Baltic amber silver can still be found today on the eastern coasts of England and Holland, throughout Poland, Scandinavia and northern Germany and much of western Russia and the Baltic states.
Fabulous amber jewellery from Gdansk?