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Amber is a very light stone, a solidified, fossilized resin of
now-extinct conifer trees. It's color is usually honey brown.
Sometimes insects or pieces of earth or leaves are present in the
amber. The fossils are mostly insects such as gnats, flies, wasps,
bees and ants. Occasionally more exotic insects are trapped in the
amber such as grasshoppers, preying mantises, beetles, moths,
termites, butterflies, etc. Other non-insect animals are found in
amber too such as spiders, centipedes, scorpions and even frogs and
lizards.
Amber is the first and oldest geological specimen to be used in
jewelry. Archeologists digging primitive sites near the Baltic sea
have found evidence of amber jewelry that is approximately 40,000
years old.
Amber has some unique properties. An ethereal oil can be distilled
from it, though a good size specimen may only yield minute amounts.
When dissolved in oil of turpentine or linseed oil, it creates a
premium varnish. Amber-lac or amber-varnish is extremely hard and
imparts a dark rich color to the wood.
The Greeks called amber elektron,
the word from which electricity was derived because it becomes
electrically charged when rubbed with a cloth and can attract small
particles. They thought it was pieces of solidified sunshine,
believing solidification occurred when pieces were broken off as the
sun sank into the sea.Amber was in fashion among Roman
women, who had the habit of carrying a small piece in the hand for
the odor it emitted when warmed in this way. During this time,
according to Pliny, a small figure carved from the material would
cost more than a healthy slave. The Romans even sent armies to
conquer and control amber producing areas.
By the year 1400, certain orders of knights controlled the trade of
amber and unauthorized possession of raw amber was illegal in most
of Europe.Among other beliefs, amber has been assumed to
alleviate goiters.
Because of the small insects that could have been trapped inside,
amber has helped paleontologists to reconstruct life on earth in its
primal phases, and more than 1,000 extinct species of insects have
been identified this way. |
