Amber

Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity. Amber is used in jewelry and as a healing agent in folk medicine.

There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite, and the term ambrite is applied to that found specifically within New Zealand coal seams.

Etymology

The English word amber derives from Arabic ʿanbar عنبر via Middle Latin ambar and Middle French ambre. The word referred to what is now known as ambergris (ambre gris or "gray amber"), a solid waxy substance derived from the sperm whale. The word, in its sense of "ambergris," was adopted in Middle English in the 14th century.

In the Romance languages, the sense of the word was extended to Baltic amber (fossil resin) from as early as the late 13th century. At first called white or yellow amber (ambre jaune), this meaning was adopted in English by the early 15th century. As the use of ambergris waned, this became the main sense of the word.[better source needed]

The two substances ("yellow amber" and "gray amber") conceivably became associated or confused because they both were found washed up on beaches. Ambergris is less dense than water and floats, whereas amber is denser and floats only in concentrated saline, or strong salty seawater though less dense than stone.

The classical names for amber, Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ēlektron) and one of its Latin names, electrum, are connected to a term ἠλέκτωρ (ēlektōr) meaning "beaming Sun". According to myth, when Phaëton, son of Helios (the Sun) was killed, his mourning sisters became poplar trees, and their tears became elektron, amber. The word elektron gave rise to the words electric, electricity, and their relatives because of amber's ability to bear a charge of static electricity.

Varietal names

A number of regional and varietal names have been applied to ambers over the centuries, including Allingite, Beckerite, Gedanite, Kochenite, Krantzite, and Stantienite.

General definitions

In the extant flora, particularly common in the tropics and subtropics, hundreds of plant species are known to secrete resin. The resin of some, often now extinct, species has been preserved as fossils. In scientific usage, the name amber has long been used as a collective term for all fossil resins that form solid particles. The term amber species has become established for the fossil resin originating from a specific plant species. Although ambers are not minerals, the suffix -ite is used for the names of amber species in reference to the common naming of minerals. Since 1820, the most common Baltic amber species, amber in the narrower sense, has been called succinite. It is also common to combine the term with names of regions or places, e.g. "Baltic amber", " Dominican amber ", " Bitterfeld amber ". Originally, this term was used only in a very general way to describe locations where amber was found or groups of amber species.

Like minerals, amber species are classified into varieties based on their color, transparency, and other characteristics. They are substantially identical and originate from the same producer plant. Natural forms can be distinguished according to their external appearance: their shape is due to the direct secretion of the resin as well as the change in shape during transport from the producer tree to the storage site. For the purpose of identification during technical extraction and processing of succinite, a distinction is made between varieties and commercial varieties.

History

Amber has always fascinated people. It was considered a symbol of luxury and power in all important dynasties and throughout history. Therefore, it was used as jewelry from early times.

Theophrastus discussed amber in the 4th century BCE, as did Pytheas (c. 330 BCE), whose work "On the Ocean" is lost, but was referenced by Pliny, according to whose Natural History:

Pytheas says that the Gutones, a people of Germany, inhabit the shores of an estuary of the Ocean called Mentonomon, their territory extending a distance of six thousand stadia; that, at one day's sail from this territory, is the Isle of Abalus, upon the shores of which, amber is thrown up by the waves in spring, it being an excretion of the sea in a concrete form; as, also, that the inhabitants use this amber by way of fuel, and sell it to their neighbors, the Teutones.

Earlier Pliny says that Pytheas refers to a large island—three days' sail from the Scythian coast and called Balcia by Xenophon of Lampsacus (author of a fanciful travel book in Greek)—as Basilia—a name generally equated with Abalus. Given the presence of amber, the island could have been Heligoland, Zealand, the shores of Gdańsk Bay, the Sambia Peninsula or the Curonian Lagoon, which were historically the richest sources of amber in northern Europe. There were well-established trade routes for amber connecting the Baltic with the Mediterranean (known as the "Amber Road"). Pliny states explicitly that the Germans exported amber to Pannonia, from where the Veneti distributed it onwards.

The ancient Italic peoples of southern Italy used to work amber; the National Archaeological Museum of Siritide (Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Siritide) at Policoro in the province of Matera (Basilicata) displays important surviving examples. It has been suggested that amber used in antiquity, as at Mycenae and in the prehistory of the Mediterranean, came from deposits in Sicily.

Pliny also cites the opinion of Nicias (c. 470–413 BCE), according to whom amber

"is a liquid produced by the rays of the sun; and that these rays, at the moment of the sun's setting, striking with the greatest force upon the surface of the soil, leave upon it an unctuous sweat, which is carried off by the tides of the Ocean, and thrown up upon the shores of Germany."

Besides the fanciful explanations according to which amber is "produced by the Sun", Pliny cites opinions that are well aware of its origin in tree resin, citing the native Latin name of succinum (sūcinum, from sucus "juice"). In Book 37, section XI of Natural History, Pliny wrote:

Amber is produced from a marrow discharged by trees belonging to the pine genus, like gum from the cherry, and resin from the ordinary pine. It is a liquid at first, which issues forth in considerable quantities, and is gradually hardened Our forefathers, too, were of opinion that it is the juice of a tree, and for this reason gave it the name of "succinum" and one great proof that it is the produce of a tree of the pine genus, is the fact that it emits a pine-like smell when rubbed, and that it burns, when ignited, with the odour and appearance of torch-pine wood.

He also states that amber is also found in Egypt and India, and he even refers to the electrostatic properties of amber, by saying that "in Syria the women make the whorls of their spindles of this substance, and give it the name of harpax [from ἁρπάζω, "to drag"] from the circumstance that it attracts leaves towards it, chaff, and the light fringe of tissues".

The Romans traded for amber from the shores of the southern Baltic at least as far back as the time of Nero.

Amber has a long history of use in China, with the first written record from 200 BCE. Early in the 19th century, the first reports of amber found in North America came from discoveries in New Jersey along Crosswicks Creek near Trenton, at Camden, and near Woodbury.

Stone Age

Amber has been found, albeit rarely, in the Paleolithic period. However, it was not yet processed, and its purpose at that time is unknown. Pendants and beads made of Baltic amber have been found in North Friesland. These have been dated to around 12,000 years ago and indicate use in the Upper Paleolithic. If the deposits in Ukraine are also included in the Baltic amber, it was already being processed around 20,000 years ago (excavations near Kaniv am Ros). 

Amber of a similar age was also found in the Altamira cave, which probably comes from northern Spain and is therefore not Baltic amber. During the Mesolithic period (from around 9600 BC), increased amber processing can be observed on the North and Baltic Sea coasts. In the Neolithic period, the fossil resin became a sought-after commodity and spread from the Baltic Sea to Egypt. Many amber finds were made at this time, which is related to the formation of the Litorina Sea (a post-glacial rise in sea level led to salinization of the Baltic Sea basin, which was then filled with fresh water). At that time, it was possible to collect amber from the beach.  In Denmark and the southern Baltic region, amber was used from 8000 BC to make animal amulets and carvings with animal motifs. Shamans used it as incense, so it acquired ritual significance. When around 4300 BC, amber was discovered in Denmark and the southern Baltic Sea region. When Neolithic farmers arrived on the northern coasts in the 1st century BC, amber was still a sought-after raw material. They began collecting amber on a large scale, which was made into necklaces and pendants and worn or used for ritual purposes (sacrifices, grave goods). The builders of the megalithic tombs made small replica axes out of amber, typical of the time and this cultural area. Amber deposit finds, particularly in Jutland, prove the importance of amber as a trading good. Manfred Rech lists 37 deposits in Denmark. Highly developed tools made of antler, flint, sandstone and animal skins existed for processing and polishing the amber.

Bronze Age

During the Bronze Age, interest in amber initially declined, although the material remained a popular grave offering. Due to the common practice of cremating the dead, however, only a few pieces survived. A necklace found in a more than 3,000-year-old hoard near Ingolstadt showed a necklace made of about 3,000 amber beads, which must have been of inestimable value. Why the necklace was buried in a clay jug is unclear.

Amber was already being transported from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean region along a so-called Amber Road in the Bronze Age. In Qatna, a lion's head made of amber was found in a royal tomb dating to at least 1340 BC. 

Amber, along with salt and raw metals (bronze and tin), was one of the most sought-after commodities. It regularly appears in hoards and grave finds. It has been used to demonstrate far-reaching connections. Two wide gold rings, each with an amber disc embedded, were found in southern England (tin deposits), and an almost identical example is known from the Greek Bronze Age center of Mycenae (heyday from the 15th to 13th centuries BC). A necklace of amber beads was also found in an Early Bronze Age hoard (around 1700 BC) from Dieskau (Saalekreis). The ship of Uluburun, which sank off the southwest coast of Asia Minor in the late 14th century BC, also contained amber beads from the Baltic region. 

Antiquity

In the Iron Age, amber regained importance through its appreciation by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Scythians, Egyptians, Balts, and Slavs as "tears of the sun" or "tears or urine of the gods." Later, it was considered "urine of the lynx," "petrified honey," or "solidified petroleum." It was also called "gold of the north" or "tears of the sun's daughters" (Ovid, Metamorphoses II, 340–366). It was of great importance in sun cults because of its unevenness and cracks, making it appear to glow from within. 

The Greeks valued amber as a gemstone, which they used as a means of exchange for all kinds of luxury goods, as mentioned and described by Homer. The Romans used it as a means of exchange and for engravings. In Greco-Roman antiquity, it was recognized that amber can become electrostatically charged. The Greek philosopher Aristotle interpreted the origin of amber as plant sap and mentioned the occurrence of zooinclusions. Pytheas of Massila reached the so-called Amber Islands on one of his voyages around 334 BC (presumably referring to the West, East and North Frisian Islands in the North Sea). These islands are also called the Electrides. The Romans Tacitus and Pliny the Elder wrote about amber, its origins and trade. Emperor Nero is said to have used amber in large quantities for ceremonial purposes. In imperial Rome, not only the emperor but also the people indulged in lavish luxury with amber. People drank from amber vessels, it adorned everything of value, and wealthy women dyed their hair amber. Pliny the Elder criticized the fact that a small amber figurine was more expensive than a slave. In ancient Rome, the trade in Samland amber was also developed.

Ancient trade routes

As early as the Bronze Age, Baltic amber was a valuable barter item and trade item that traveled southward. During the Mycenaean period (c. 1600 to 1050 BC), jewelry made of imported amber was worn in Greece, as several finds from this period demonstrate. The amber trade routes are known as the Amber Roads. They run in a bundle southward to the Mediterranean:

to Aquileia: Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 AD) reported that amber was brought from the Baltic coast to Aquileia. The amber trade route, already important in prehistoric times, follows the March River in Lower Austria, crosses the Danube near Carnuntum, east of Vienna, and from there leads as the Roman Amber Road through Hungary and Slovenia to Aquileia in Italy. As an important transport route, it was expanded at the beginning of the 1st century AD under Augustus and Tiberius and connected to the Roman road network (see also Roman roads);

to the western Mediterranean: on various routes from Hamburg to Marseille.

Middle Ages

Necklaces from the 5th and 6th centuries are on display in the Klaipėda Amber Museum and were considered legal tender in the region of today's Baltic States. 

In the Middle Ages, and in Catholic areas even afterwards, amber was mainly used to make rosary beads. Because of its high value, feudal lords soon placed the extraction and sale of all amber in East and West Prussia under sovereign right (Amber Regale). Collecting and selling amber on one's own account was punishable; at times, the death penalty was imposed in particularly serious cases. Coastal residents were obliged to collect and deliver amber under the supervision of beach riders and chamberlains. In the Middle Ages, amber was also heated in Europe and China to use it as a water-repellent varnish to protect wood. In the 10th century, amber was also a sought-after material among Vikings, used as incense or artistically processed. Finds of beads for mixed necklaces, spindle whorls, game board pieces and dice made of amber are known from this period.

Amber deposits further inland were also exploited in the Middle Ages. In Kashubia, near Bursztynowa Góra (Amber Mountain), craters up to 40 meters in diameter and 15 meters deep can be seen in the landscape. Mining there is first documented in the 10th century.

Modern times

In modern times, amber has been processed into jewelry according to ancient tradition and has also been used for boxes, game pieces and boards, inlays, pipe mouthpieces and other representative items.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the demand for amber rosaries declined, which is why other objects were now also made from amber. At first, these objects continued to have religious uses. However, this changed with the onset of the Reformation. The Prussian rulers used amber for ceremonial purposes and had various decorative and everyday objects made from it. The Prussian court commissioned hundreds of amber art objects, especially goblets, boxes, candy bowls and sword handles, which found their way into many art collections of European princes and ruling houses as wedding and diplomatic gifts. The amber was often combined with tortoiseshell, ivory and precious stones. At the beginning of the 16th century, the objects produced were still relatively small due to the small size of the amber and the lack of knowledge about how to weld the pieces together. Towards the end of the 16th century, however, it became possible to produce larger and more elaborate works of art. These primarily included jewelry boxes made of small, relief-embossed amber pieces glued together or held together by a silver frame. The first larger pieces of amber furniture also date from this period.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the construction of amber objects on wooden frames began. The amber plates were often backed with gold leaf to emphasize the carved reliefs. The colors and contrasts of the amber were selected to create beautiful mosaic-like effects or, for example, to distinguish squares on game boards. Typical amber works of the 17th century include cutlery handles, candlesticks, game boards, and even objects for religious use, such as household altars.

In the 18th century, collecting amber objects in curiosities cabinets became fashionable, which further increased its prestige. Amber craftsmanship was one of the leading and most respected professions. Major works were created, such as the Amber Room, which the Prussian King Frederick I had made for his Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin and which was completed in 1712. In 1716, his son gave the room to the Russian Tsar Peter I. It was later incorporated into the Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg, stolen by the Germans during World War II and brought to Königsberg. It has been missing since 1945. Whether it burned or survived is unclear. However, there are rumors that the Amber Room is still stored in underground tunnels. It was mainly small objects such as ornate jewelry or games for social occasions that were made there.

With the advancement of natural science, it was recognized that amber, as a fossilized resin, was not of mystical but of natural origin. Therefore, courtly interest in amber declined after 1750.

In the 19th century, amber mining and processing reached industrial proportions. Raw amber was shipped in large quantities all over the world. It was used to make pipe mouthpieces and other smoking utensils, as well as small boxes, pendants, necklaces, and brooches.

Until the 19th century, amber was mainly extracted by picking from the beach. In 1862, for example, 4,000 kg were collected using this method. In 1837, the Prussian King Frederick William III transferred the entire use of amber from Danzig to Memel to the communities of the East Prussian Samland region in return for 30,000 marks. From the middle of the 19th century, mining became increasingly mechanized. Pioneers in this field were the two entrepreneurs Friedrich Wilhelm Stantien and Moritz Becker, who had founded their company Stantien & Becker in Memel in 1858. They first began to systematically dredge the Curonian Lagoon near Schwarzort (the site was already exhausted by 1900). In 1875, they built what was probably the world's first amber mine near Palmnicken. By 1890, over 200,000 kg had been mined in this way. Amber jewelry increasingly became a product of the wealthy middle class. The amber shop on Munich's Marienplatz, which still exists today, dates back to 1884. Stantien & Becker had sales offices worldwide (including in India, Mexico, and Tokyo).

Pressed amber had been available since 1881, making jewelry affordable for all sections of the population. In some regions of Europe, faceted amber necklaces were part of the peasant wedding attire. In 1899, profitable production returned to state ownership. In 1912 alone, 600 tons of amber were mined. In total, over 16,000 tons of Baltic amber were mined in Samland between 1876 and 1935. In 1926, the world's largest factory, the State Amber Manufactory Königsberg (SBM), was established in East Prussia, where artistic products and everyday objects were made from amber until 1945. For this reason, amber quickly became known as "Prussian gold."

From the more recent past, the Polish artist Lucjan Myrta deserves special mention. Many of his works, which are often in the Baroque style and whose artistic status is not undisputed among experts, can be seen in the Historical Museum of the City of Gdansk. The artist, who lives in Sopot, kept many of the often unusually large works of art in his personal possession. The artist probably maintains the world's largest collection of amber artifacts, although this is not open to the public. One of the large-volume works remaining in his private collection contains more raw amber than the entire Amber Room.

Amber species

More than 80 types of amber are known worldwide, but most of them occur only in small quantities. The most common type of amber is succinite; according to one estimate, there are more than 640,000 t of them in the Baltic region alone. The accessory amber types gedanite, glessite, beckerite, and stantienite have been known from the Baltic deposits since the 19th century.

There have been long-standing and sometimes controversial discussions about the accessory fossil resins found in the waste (brackish) during amber mining in Bitterfeld, e.g. . In the meantime, the misconceptions caused by their great rarity have been revised. In the Bitterfeld amber deposit , in addition to succinite, which dominates with 99.9%, the amber types gedanite, glessite, beckerite, stantienite, goitschite, bitterfeldite, durglessite, and pseudostantienite, as well as eleven other fossil resins that have not yet been identified, occur.

Copals, unless recent resin collected from trees is included, are young fossil resins from the tropics and subtropics of West and East Africa, Madagascar, the Malay Archipelago, New Zealand, and Colombia. Despite their relatively young age, some authors also consider them to be a type of amber. Their lower hardness and greater solubility compared to older amber types are not, as is often assumed, a result of "immaturity," but, as with the similarly soft older amber types goitschite and bitterfeldite from Bitterfeld, a property of the parent resin.

Amber varieties

Varieties of the amber species succinite are distinguished particularly according to the degree of turbidity; the flowing transitions and mixtures in the individual pieces are characteristic:

Clear or semi-clear, completely transparent like glass, color very pale yellow (ice clear) to brownish yellow (Braunschweiger Clear).

Flom or matt, semi-transparent cloudy due to microscopically small bubbles.

Bastard, completely opaque, rich and cloudy, homogeneous to cloudy or spotted (so-called Kumst after the East Prussian name for sauerkraut) with varying degrees of coloration.

Bone, completely opaque, ivory to pure white (white resin).

Foam, completely opaque yellowish-white, lighter than fresh water (weathering form of the variety bone).

Black varnish, grey-black to marbled, wood mulch and earth with resin as a binding agent.

Variegated, mixture of varieties clear to bone, often sharply defined and with clefts.

Antique, varieties clear to bastard, colored varying degrees of red to reddish brown by weathering.

Varieties of rarer amber species, such as glessite and bitterfeldite, are also known.

Natural forms

Among natural forms, a distinction must be made between primary and secondary. The primary natural forms were formed during the outflow of the resin; they are therefore often referred to as river forms:

Schlauben formed when resin oozed out in bursts, covering the previous resin outflows over a larger area. They are usually clear, with contaminants (e.g., dust) often present on the separating surfaces, and they contain the most fossil inclusions. 

Cones formed from more localized resin flows that solidified on their own thread before falling. Longer-lasting resin flows can lead to thicker resin stalactites. They also contain fossil inclusions.

Drops formed from drained resin, predominantly flattened and disc-shaped, but also spherical to pear-shaped.

Tiles (plates) were formed by resin accumulations of the varieties Bastard and Bone behind the bark or in cracks, without inclusions.

Nodules are clump-like accumulations of resin in secondary cavities of the wood body (for example due to pest infestation or wind breakage), predominantly variety Bastard, without inclusions.

Secondary natural forms were created by weathering processes and the stresses during transport from the place of origin to the deposit:

Soilstone is the most common form in the deposits; the typical weathered crust was created by prolonged storage in the air before final embedding.

Seastone is the typical form of the pieces washed up on the Baltic and North Sea coasts and appear polished; the weathered crust has been removed by grinding over sand.

Cobbles occur particularly in softer amber species; the well-rounded pieces indicate a longer transport route.

Varieties and commercial varieties

Industrially extracted amber (succinite) is sold sorted according to size and variety.  Amber that is not suitable for jewelry making but at best for amber distillation, or that is contaminated or too fine-grained, is referred to as brackish, slag, or varnish.

Raw amber usually still has a weathered crust, unless it has been worn away by prolonged drifting on the seabed. This, along with ground and polished amber, whose internal structure or color has not been artificially altered, is referred to as natural amber.

Commercially available amber jewelry often contains clear-cooked amber. This is originally cloudy, unsightly natural amber that has been cooked in hot oil. Oil has a significantly higher boiling point than water, so temperatures are reached at which the fossilized resin becomes soft and more permeable, and the tiny air bubbles are filled with oil. The refractive index of oil is almost identical to that of amber, so the bubbles are no longer visible after the amber has cooled. The result is a crystal-clear, uniformly colored "stone." However, this process has one flaw: Amber treated in this way is very fragile during the cooling process. If the material is not carefully cooled degree by degree, it develops so-called "sunbursts," more or less semicircular, golden-colored cracks. These are very rare in untreated amber and are found only at fractures. Sometimes, however, the cooling process is deliberately controlled to create decorative and attractive cracks. Instead of boiling the amber in oil, the clarification can also be achieved by heating it in a sand bath. In this process, the bubbles fill with a resinous substance produced by the amber itself. Clarified amber is no longer a purely natural product.

Pressed amber is often misleadingly marketed as genuine amber, real amber, or amber. This does not refer to naturally occurring amber, however, but rather to a product made from grinding residues and small pieces in an autoclave. Pressed amber is produced by heating cleaned amber pieces and then pressing them together under intense pressure. This occurs in the absence of air and at a temperature of 200°C to 250°C. At a pressure of up to 3000 bar, the mass solidifies into rod- or arc-shaped bodies. By varying the heat and pressure, different colors and both clear and cloudy pressed amber can be produced.

In addition to these forms of amber, genuine amber is also offered commercially. This is a type of pressed amber that, apart from its irregular flashes, is visually almost indistinguishable from natural amber due to its small and delicate distribution of streaks. It can only be definitively identified using gemmological methods.

Characteristics

The color of amber (succinite) ranges from colorless to white, light to golden yellow and orange, through to red and brown tones. In cloudy pieces, greenish and bluish tones can rarely occur due to the effects of light refraction. Dark brown to black-gray pieces contain larger amounts of plant and mineral inclusions. The degree of cloudiness depends on the number of microscopically small bubbles they contain. The variety Knochen (white resin) has the highest density of bubbles (size: 0.2 µm to 0.8 µm, number: up to 900,000 per mm 3). The view that the bubbles are "filled with water and terpene-containing oil", i.e. that the cell sap of the amber trees has been preserved, is outdated. In the freshly mined state, the bubbles are filled with water. Since amber is not gas-tight, the water evaporates more or less quickly in the air. In the case of larger cavities, a bubble level can temporarily appear, like a spirit level.

In other amber species, the color range is much greater, e.g., deep black (stantienite, pseudostantienite), dark blue-grey (glessite), and even blood-red colors. The blue shimmer, which frequently occurs in Dominican amber, is well known.

In contrast to synthetic resin imitations, amber (succinite) is easy to ignite and produces a yellow, sooty flame when burning. It has a resinous, aromatic scent and melts into a black, brittle mass when exposed to the flame. The resinous smell arises from the burning of volatile components (essential oils) in the amber. Therefore, it is suitable for smoking and has been used as an incense in many cultures for centuries. For example, in India, it serves as a substitute for incense for sacred purposes or is used in traditional Sufi rituals. 

Composition and formation

Amber is heterogeneous in composition, but consists of several resinous bodies more or less soluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform, associated with an insoluble bituminous substance. Amber is a macromolecule formed by free radical polymerization of several precursors in the labdane family, for example, communic acid, communol, and biformene. These labdanes are diterpenes (C20H32) and trienes, equipping the organic skeleton with three alkene groups for polymerization. As amber matures over the years, more polymerization takes place as well as isomerization reactions, crosslinking and cyclization.

Most amber has a hardness between 2.0 and 2.5 on the Mohs scale, a refractive index of 1.5–1.6, a specific gravity between 1.06 and 1.10, and a melting point of 250–300 °C. Heated above 200 °C (392 °F), amber decomposes, yielding an oil of amber, and leaves a black residue which is known as "amber colophony", or "amber pitch"; when dissolved in oil of turpentine or in linseed oil this forms "amber varnish" or "amber lac".

Molecular polymerization, resulting from high pressures and temperatures produced by overlying sediment, transforms the resin first into copal. Sustained heat and pressure drives off terpenes and results in the formation of amber. For this to happen, the resin must be resistant to decay. Many trees produce resin, but in the majority of cases this deposit is broken down by physical and biological processes. Exposure to sunlight, rain, microorganisms, and extreme temperatures tends to disintegrate the resin. For the resin to survive long enough to become amber, it must be resistant to such forces or be produced under conditions that exclude them. Fossil resins from Europe fall into two categories, the Baltic ambers and another that resembles the Agathis group. Fossil resins from the Americas and Africa are closely related to the modern genus Hymenaea, while Baltic ambers are thought to be fossil resins from plants of the family Sciadopityaceae that once lived in north Europe.

The abnormal development of resin in living trees (succinosis) can result in the formation of amber. Impurities are quite often present, especially when the resin has dropped onto the ground, so the material may be useless except for varnish-making. Such impure amber is called firniss. Such inclusion of other substances can cause the amber to have an unexpected color. Pyrites may give a bluish color. Bony amber owes its cloudy opacity to numerous tiny bubbles inside the resin. However, so-called black amber is really a kind of jet. In darkly clouded and even opaque amber, inclusions can be imaged using high-energy, high-contrast, high-resolution X-rays.

Physical properties

Amber (succinite) has a Mohs hardness of 2 to 2.5, making it a relatively soft material. It is possible to scratch a groove into its surface with a copper coin. Some other amber species are much softer (such as goitschite, bitterfeldite, and copal) or much harder, such as the brown resins, which are difficult to scratch with a steel needle. Others have a rubbery consistency (such as pseudostantienite) or are extremely tough (such as beckerite).

Amber is only slightly denser than water. Due to its low density (around 1.07 g/cm 3), it floats in saturated salt solutions. This property was exploited in amber mining in Bitterfeld to separate the amber from foreign matter in sieve residues >3 mm.

Amber (succinite) has no melting point; between 170°C and 200°C it becomes soft and malleable, and above 300°C it begins to decompose. Dry distillation, which was once carried out on a large scale, produces the main products amber oil and amber rosin. Amber oil was used in the first half of the 20th century for ore flotation, and the rosin was a sought-after raw material for lacquer. Both substances have essentially lost their economic importance and are now niche products; amber oil, for example, is used as a natural remedy.

Amber (succinite) has a very high electrical resistance and a very low dielectric constant of 2.9 as natural amber or 2.74 as pressed amber. In a dry environment it can be electrostatically charged by rubbing against textile fabric (cotton, silk) or wool. This gives it a negative charge, meaning it absorbs electrons. The rubbing material acquires a positive charge by releasing electrons. This charge is also known as frictional electricity. This property can be used as a non-destructive, albeit not always easy - especially with smaller pieces - test for authenticity: the charged amber attracts small scraps of paper, fabric fibers, or wool fluff. This effect was already known in ancient times and was passed down through the works of Pliny the Elder up to the late Middle Ages. The English naturalist William Gilbert devoted a whole chapter to it in his work De magnete magneticisque corporibus, published in 1600, and distinguished it from magnetism. Gilbert also coined the term “electricity,” which he derived from the Greek word ἤλεκτρον ēlektron for amber.

Amber (succinite) glows blue under ultraviolet radiation (wavelength 320 to 380 nm) when unweathered or freshly ground, and a dull olive green when weathered. Succinite shines when wet or ground because of its high refractive index when the surface is smooth. It transmits X-rays with almost no loss in layers up to 10 mm thick.

Fuhrmann & Borsdorf have presented a classification based on their physical properties. In addition to a succinite group (succinite, gedanite), a glessite group (glessite, bitterfeldite, durglessite, goitschite), a beckerite group (beckerite, siegburgite), and a stantienite group (stantienite, pseudostantienite) are distinguished. Very simple infrared spectrometric analyses support this classification; the most common amber species, succinite, for example, is characterized by a distinctive section in the IR spectrogram, the so-called "Baltic shoulder." 

Chemical properties

The decoding of the chemical properties of the amber species succinite has a long history. For example, the distillation product amber oil was already known in the 12th century; Agricola extracted succinic acid in 1546, and the Russian polymath W. Lomonosov succeeded in providing scientific proof of the nature of amber as a fossil tree resin in the mid-18th century. In 1829, Berzelius discovered, using seemingly modern chemical analysis methods, that amber is composed of soluble and insoluble components. 

According to elemental analysis, amber consists of 67–81% carbon, the rest being hydrogen and oxygen, and sometimes a little sulfur (up to 1%). Additional elements can occur through the intercalation of mineral components. Amber is a mixture of various organic substances bound together in long thread molecules. Detected soluble components include abietic acid, isopimaric acid, agathenedioic acid, and sandaracopimaric acid. The insoluble component of amber is an ester called succinin (or resene, sucinoresene→ succinate). To date, over 70 organic compounds have been identified that are involved in the structure of amber (succinite).

Most amber species weather due to atmospheric oxygen and UV radiation. In succinite, the outer layers first darken and turn red (Antik variety). Small polygonal cracks form, emanating from the surface and existing cavities. Over time, the surface becomes rough and crumbly, and eventually the entire piece decomposes. This also destroys existing inclusions.

Many types of amber are only slightly soluble in organic solvents. Amber (succinite) reacts only on the surface with ether, acetone, and sulfuric acid; with prolonged exposure, it becomes dull. Pressed amber is less resistant. With prolonged contact with the above-mentioned substances, it becomes doughy and soft. The same applies in principle to copal and synthetic resin, except that in the latter case, much shorter contact is sufficient.

The nomenclature of fossil resins is confusing. The designation of amber species, both by regional names based on countries and regions, and by their properties, analogous to minerals with the suffix -it, can lead to misunderstandings (see the section "Amber species").

In a first outdated attempt to differentiate based on chemical composition, succinites with 3% to 8% succinic acid were separated from retinites with up to 3% succinic acid. 

Extraction and processing

Distribution and mining

Amber is globally distributed in or around all continents, mainly in rocks of Cretaceous age or younger. Historically, the coast west of Königsberg in Prussia was the world's leading source of amber. The first mentions of amber deposits there date back to the 12th century. Juodkrantė in Lithuania was established in the mid-19th century as a mining town of amber. About 90% of the world's extractable amber is still located in that area, which was transferred to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the USSR in 1946, becoming the Kaliningrad Oblast.

Pieces of amber torn from the seafloor are cast up by the waves and collected by hand, dredging, or diving. Elsewhere, amber is mined, both in open works and underground galleries. Then nodules of blue earth have to be removed and an opaque crust must be cleaned off, which can be done in revolving barrels containing sand and water. Erosion removes this crust from sea-worn amber. Dominican amber is mined through bell pitting, which is dangerous because of the risk of tunnel collapse.

An important source of amber is Kachin State in northern Myanmar, which has been a major source of amber in China for at least 1,800 years. Contemporary mining of this deposit has attracted attention for unsafe working conditions and its role in funding internal conflict in the country. Amber from the Rivne Oblast of Ukraine, referred to as Rivne amber, is mined illegally by organised crime groups, who deforest the surrounding areas and pump water into the sediments to extract the amber, causing severe environmental deterioration.

Pre-mining period

There are numerous documents on the extraction of amber in Samland before the beginning of amber mining,  a comprehensive recent account is by Rainer Slotta. 

Before 1860, amber in Samland was mainly extracted by collecting the amber that had washed up on the coast. The progressive erosion of the cliffs by the sea ensured a constant supply from the amber-bearing layers. Mining played a lesser role, but for technical reasons this had to be limited to the groundwater-free cover layers of the "Blue Earth". According to a contemporary report from 1783, mining in this way had apparently already been taking place for centuries in various places on the Samland coast, although depending on the yield often only for a short time, in small-scale excavations that particularly exploited nest-like enrichments of the amber-bearing Miocene so-called "brown coal formation". Smaller active deep mines from this period are documented from 1781 to 1806. In a contract for the leasing of the amber shelf to a consortium, which included high state officials and some merchants, the tenants were expressly permitted, for the duration of the lease (1811 to 1823), not only to extract amber from the sea but also to extract amber from open pits in the so-called "sea mountains" in an area stretching from Polsk (Narmeln) on the Vistula Spit to Nimmersatt (now Nemirseta in Lithuania). The extraction of amber from these mines was said to have been particularly profitable. 

Several chronicles report the quantities of amber collected on the so-called Amber Coast. The annual amount collected from the beaches is said to have been 20 to 30 tons. After severe storms, the amount of amber washed ashore in a single day could reach 1,000 kilograms or more. Simply collecting amber from the coastal wash was the most widespread and probably most productive method of amber extraction. However, other methods also led to success:

Amber fishing or amber scooping.The amber fisherman would stand in the surf with a net attached to a long pole. The net would be held into the incoming wave. As it did so, it would fill with seaweed and sprockwood, among which the stirred-up amber would become caught. The material would be thrown onto the beach and searched for. This method is still used today along the Baltic coasts in Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, and Denmark. The amber obtained in this way is sometimes referred to in older literature as "pulling amber" or "scooping stone."

Amber piercing.Larger pieces of amber, in particular, often remained between larger stones near the coast. The stones were loosened with long poles from specially designed, particularly wide rowboats and occasionally salvaged as building material. The seabed was then searched for amber. Nets attached to long poles were used to stir up the amber and net it into the boat.

Amber diving.Attempts to dive for amber were made as early as the early 18th century. These were carried out without any aids and were largely unsuccessful. It wasn't until the second half of the 19th century that amber diving became successful with the aid of aids (diving suits) by the company Stantien & Becker, which later also operated amber mining near Palmnicken. The highest annual quantity collected through amber diving was 14 tons in 1881.

Collecting amber in coastal areas in Samland became increasingly economically insignificant with the commencement of mining by the company Stantien & Becker in 1871. Amber diving, for example, was discontinued in 1883.

The amber dredging by the company Stantien & Becker from 1862 to 1890 on the Curonian Spit near Schwarzort (now Juodkrantė) played an important role in the transition to mining. Up to 75 tons of amber were extracted annually. During this amber dredging, 434 pieces of Neolithic amber jewelry were found. 

On the German North Sea coast, a great deal of amber was found until the mid-19th century, particularly in the Eiderstedt area. Amber was collected in the mudflats and on some particularly rich sandbanks by so-called " hitzläufer" (hunters) and "amber riders." Skilled riders were able to fish the amber out of the shallow waters using a small net attached to a pole, without dismounting.

Sites with mining extraction

At least 75% of the world's amber (succinite) production currently comes from regular mining on the Samland Peninsula (Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia; formerly East Prussia). In Poland, relocated amber contained in Quaternary sediments, particularly from the Vistula lowlands near Gdansk, has long been extracted in countless, predominantly illegal, small-scale mining operations. The total quantity extracted between 1945 and 1995 is reported to be 930 t, the average annual production being about 20 t.

Treatment

The Vienna amber factories, which use pale amber to manufacture pipes and other smoking tools, turn it on a lathe and polish it with whitening and water or with rotten stone and oil. The final luster is given by polishing with flannel.

When gradually heated in an oil bath, amber "becomes soft and flexible. Two pieces of amber may be united by smearing the surfaces with linseed oil, heating them, and then pressing them together while hot. Cloudy amber may be clarified in an oil bath, as the oil fills the numerous pores that cause the turbidity. Small fragments, formerly thrown away or used only for varnish are now used on a large scale in the formation of "ambroid" or "pressed amber". The pieces are carefully heated with exclusion of air and then compressed into a uniform mass by intense hydraulic pressure, the softened amber being forced through holes in a metal plate. The product is extensively used for the production of cheap jewelry and articles for smoking. This pressed amber yields brilliant interference colors in polarized light."

Amber has often been imitated by other resins like copal and kauri gum, as well as by celluloid and even glass. Baltic amber is sometimes colored artificially but also called "true amber".

Appearance

Amber occurs in a range of different colors. As well as the usual yellow-orange-brown that is associated with the color "amber", amber can range from a whitish color through a pale lemon yellow, to brown and almost black. Other uncommon colors include red amber (sometimes known as "cherry amber"), green amber, and even blue amber, which is rare and highly sought after.

Yellow amber is a hard fossil resin from evergreen trees, and despite the name it can be translucent, yellow, orange, or brown colored. Known to the Iranians by the Pahlavi compound word kah-ruba (from kah "straw" plus rubay "attract, snatch", referring to its electrical properties), which entered Arabic as kahraba' or kahraba (which later became the Arabic word for electricity, كهرباء kahrabā'), it too was called amber in Europe (Old French and Middle English ambre). Found along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, yellow amber reached the Middle East and western Europe via trade. Its coastal acquisition may have been one reason yellow amber came to be designated by the same term as ambergris. Moreover, like ambergris, the resin could be burned as an incense. The resin's most popular use was, however, for ornamentation—easily cut and polished, it could be transformed into beautiful jewelry. Much of the most highly prized amber is transparent, in contrast to the very common cloudy amber and opaque amber. Opaque amber contains numerous minute bubbles. This kind of amber is known as "bony amber".

Although all Dominican amber is fluorescent, the rarest Dominican amber is blue amber. It turns blue in natural sunlight and any other partially or wholly ultraviolet light source. In long-wave UV light it has a very strong reflection, almost white. Only about 100 kg (220 lb) is found per year, which makes it valuable and expensive.

Sometimes amber retains the form of drops and stalactites, just as it exuded from the ducts and receptacles of the injured trees. It is thought that, in addition to exuding onto the surface of the tree, amber resin also originally flowed into hollow cavities or cracks within trees, thereby leading to the development of large lumps of amber of irregular form.

Classification

Amber can be classified into several forms. Most fundamentally, there are two types of plant resin with the potential for fossilization. Terpenoids, produced by conifers and angiosperms, consist of ring structures formed of isoprene (C5H8) units. Phenolic resins are today only produced by angiosperms, and tend to serve functional uses. The extinct medullosans produced a third type of resin, which is often found as amber within their veins. The composition of resins is highly variable; each species produces a unique blend of chemicals which can be identified by the use of pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The overall chemical and structural composition is used to divide ambers into five classes. There is also a separate classification of amber gemstones, according to the way of production.

Class I

This class is by far the most abundant. It comprises labdatriene carboxylic acids such as communic or ozic acids. It is further split into three sub-classes. Classes Ia and Ib utilize regular labdanoid diterpenes (e.g. communic acid, communol, biformenes), while Ic uses enantio labdanoids (ozic acid, ozol, enantio biformenes).

Class Ia includes Succinite (= 'normal' Baltic amber) and Glessite. They have a communic acid base, and they also include much succinic acid. Baltic amber yields on dry distillation succinic acid, the proportion varying from about 3% to 8%, and being greatest in the pale opaque or bony varieties. The aromatic and irritating fumes emitted by burning amber are mainly from this acid. Baltic amber is distinguished by its yield of succinic acid, hence the name succinite. Succinite has a hardness between 2 and 3, which is greater than many other fossil resins. Its specific gravity varies from 1.05 to 1.10. It can be distinguished from other ambers via infrared spectroscopy through a specific carbonyl absorption peak. Infrared spectroscopy can detect the relative age of an amber sample. Succinic acid may not be an original component of amber but rather a degradation product of abietic acid.

Class Ib ambers are based on communic acid; however, they lack succinic acid.

Class Ic is mainly based on enantio-labdatrienonic acids, such as ozic and zanzibaric acids. Its most familiar representative is Dominican amber,. which is mostly transparent and often contains a higher number of fossil inclusions. This has enabled the detailed reconstruction of the ecosystem of a long-vanished tropical forest. Resin from the extinct species Hymenaea protera is the source of Dominican amber and probably of most amber found in the tropics. It is not "succinite" but "retinite".

Class II

These ambers are formed from resins with a sesquiterpenoid base, such as cadinene.

Class III

These ambers are polystyrenes.

Class IV

Class IV is something of a catch-all: its ambers are not polymerized, but mainly consist of cedrene-based sesquiterpenoids.

Class V

Class V resins are considered to be produced by a pine or pine relative. They comprise a mixture of diterpinoid resins and n-alkyl compounds. Their main variety is Highgate copalite.

Inclusions

The exquisitely preserved inclusions in amber never cease to arouse admiration. The inclusions of delicate winged insects in particular are striking due to their fine detail. They are neither compressed nor otherwise deformed, like many fossils in sedimentary rocks. Even traces of the death struggle have been preserved unchanged. In some animals, a cloud of turbidity (verlumung) can be observed around more massive body parts, a result of escaping gases and fluids during the animal's decomposition. The limited spread of this cloud, like the detailed impression, is only conceivable with very rapid hardening, which otherwise only occurs with fast-curing plastics. The inclusions are only the impression of the former living creature; as a rule, no parts of its body are preserved in the resulting cavity.

As already described in the section on formation, previous assumptions about a slow hardening process cannot be supported by the results of investigations on succinite pieces from Bitterfeld. The succinite hardened almost completely while still on the tree, which is also consistent with the shape-accurate preservation of the inclusions.

Frequency

Organic inclusions are known in most amber species, albeit with varying frequencies. During the geological exploration of the Bitterfeld amber deposit, the frequency of inclusions was also investigated: One ton of Bitterfeld succinite contains an estimated 4,500 animal inclusions.

The so-called "Schlaubensteine" (slug stones) are particularly rich in succinite. The schlauben, which formed from resin flows on the outside of the tree trunk, are layered (each layer corresponds to a resin flow), with the inclusions usually located at the interfaces between the resin flows. Often, however, the finds are only fragments of the enclosed organisms. Zooinclusions are often damaged, presumably due to bird damage when the animal was not yet completely enclosed in the resin. It is not uncommon to find individual legs of long-legged arthropods (e.g. harvestmen), which were able to shed their legs in emergency situations. Organic remains from decomposed plant material and wood mulch, usually of unidentifiable botanical origin, occur frequently. Pieces with fully preserved evidence of life at that time are particularly valuable from a scientific point of view.

Inclusions are generally found only in transparent or at least semi-transparent pieces. However, with the help of synchrotron radiation, organic inclusions have also been discovered in opaque pieces. In the case of Cretaceous amber from France, a research group led by paleontologist Paul Tafforeau used this method to create 3D models of inclusions in opaque amber pieces. 

Animals and plants in amber

The life forms preserved in amber were predominantly forest dwellers. Common forms of animal inclusions (zooinclusions) are various arthropods, especially insects such as flies, mosquitoes, dragonflies, earwigs, termites, grasshoppers, cicadas and fleas, but also woodlice, crustaceans, spiders and worms as well as occasional snails, bird feathers and mammalian hair. Some very well preserved feathers have been found in Upper Cretaceous Canadian amber, which, based on their structural features, could have come from dinosaurs. Several pieces with parts of (lacertid) lizards, including a largely complete specimen, have also been found. Particularly complete and detailed inclusions of lizards have been found in Myanmar. The claim that there are inclusions of marine life in amber is false. The included organisms are exclusively terrestrial (70% of all inclusions) and freshwater organisms (30%) from the amber forest areas. The only exceptions are inclusions of isopods of the genus Ligia, which live in the splash zone of marine rocky beaches, and a fauna of marine microorganisms (including diatoms and foraminifera) found in a small piece of Cretaceous amber from southwest France. 

There are also a variety of plant inclusions (phytoinclusions): fungi, mosses and lichens, but also plant parts that come from larches, spruces, firs, palms, cypresses, yews and oaks. By far the most common organic inclusion in succinite is the so-called "star hair", which is found in almost all sacs. These are tiny, barely visible to the naked eye, radially branched plant hairs (trichomes), which most likely come from oaks. These inclusions are considered a characteristic feature of succinite from Baltic amber deposits. 

Sometimes, inclusions containing water droplets or air pockets are found. Polish paleoentomologist Jan Koteja coined the term "syninclusions" for amber pieces containing various organic inclusions. Such amber pieces are unique pieces of evidence of the simultaneous presence of different living organisms in a single habitat.

Fossilization

Inclusions preserved in amber under the exclusion of air are fossils, but unlike most fossils, their substance was not or not completely mineralized during fossilization.

The idea that a living dinosaur can be created using genetic engineering from the DNA of an included mosquito that has ingested dinosaur blood, as depicted in Michael Crichton 's book DinoPark, which was later made into a film called Jurassic Park, is the subject of fiction.

In fact, it has been repeatedly published that not only sequenceable aDNA (ancient DNA) can be isolated from amber,  also from chloroplast DNA,  but also proteins and even viable organisms. 

However, the question of aDNA detection is controversial. In the past, scientists have expressed serious doubts about the preservation of aDNA over millions of years  and suspected contamination with recent DNA.  The possibility of preserving aDNA, e.g., within fossilized bones, is virtually impossible in principle, since DNA decays rapidly after the death of a living being and is no longer detectable without the exclusion of air after 6.8 million years at the latest. Other scientists contradict this view and show that there are indeed possibilities for preserving very old aDNA.  aDNA extractions and their analyses are also possible on very old fossils. However, it was found that very old aDNA, such as from the Miocene, is more likely to show changes, as the original base cytosine may then be present as uracil, which complicates interpretation. 

Geological record

The oldest amber recovered dates to the late Carboniferous period (320 million years ago). Its chemical composition makes it difficult to match the amber to its producers – it is most similar to the resins produced by flowering plants; however, the first flowering plants appeared in the Early Cretaceous, about 200 million years after the oldest amber known to date, and they were not common until the Late Cretaceous. Amber becomes abundant long after the Carboniferous, in the Early Cretaceous, when it is found in association with insects. The oldest amber with arthropod inclusions comes from the Late Triassic (late Carnian c. 230 Ma) of Italy, where four microscopic (0.2–0.1 mm) mites, Triasacarus, Ampezzoa, Minyacarus and Cheirolepidoptus, and a poorly preserved nematoceran fly were found in millimetre-sized droplets of amber. The oldest amber with significant numbers of arthropod inclusions comes from Lebanon. This amber, referred to as Lebanese amber, is roughly 125–135 million years old, is considered of high scientific value, providing evidence of some of the oldest sampled ecosystems.

In Lebanon, more than 450 outcrops of Lower Cretaceous amber were discovered by Dany Azar, a Lebanese paleontologist and entomologist. Among these outcrops, 20 have yielded biological inclusions comprising the oldest representatives of several recent families of terrestrial arthropods. Even older Jurassic amber has been found recently in Lebanon as well. Many remarkable insects and spiders were recently discovered in the amber of Jordan including the oldest zorapterans, clerid beetles, umenocoleid roaches, and achiliid planthoppers.

Burmese amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar is the only commercially exploited Cretaceous amber. Uranium–lead dating of zircon crystals associated with the deposit have given an estimated depositional age of approximately 99 million years ago. Over 1,300 species have been described from the amber, with over 300 in 2019 alone.

Baltic amber is found as irregular nodules in marine glauconitic sand, known as blue earth, occurring in Upper Eocene strata of Sambia in Prussia. It appears to have been partly derived from older Eocene deposits and it occurs also as a derivative phase in later formations, such as glacial drift. Relics of an abundant flora occur as inclusions trapped within the amber while the resin was yet fresh, suggesting relations with the flora of eastern Asia and the southern part of North America. Heinrich Göppert named the common amber-yielding pine of the Baltic forests Pinites succiniter, but as the wood does not seem to differ from that of the existing genus it has been also called Pinus succinifera. It is improbable that the production of amber was limited to a single species; and indeed a large number of conifers belonging to different genera are represented in the amber-flora.

Paleontological significance

Amber is a unique preservational mode, preserving otherwise unfossilizable parts of organisms; as such it is helpful in the reconstruction of ecosystems as well as organisms; the chemical composition of the resin, however, is of limited utility in reconstructing the phylogenetic affinity of the resin producer. Amber sometimes contains animals or plant matter that became caught in the resin as it was secreted. Insects, spiders and even their webs, annelids, frogs, crustaceans, bacteria and amoebae, marine microfossils, wood, flowers and fruit, hair, feathers and other small organisms have been recovered in Cretaceous ambers (deposited c. 130 million years ago). There is even an ammonite Puzosia (Bhimaites) and marine gastropods found in Burmese amber.

The preservation of prehistoric organisms in amber forms a key plot point in Michael Crichton's 1990 novel Jurassic Park and the 1993 movie adaptation by Steven Spielberg. In the story, scientists are able to extract the preserved blood of dinosaurs from prehistoric mosquitoes trapped in amber, from which they genetically clone living dinosaurs. Scientifically this is as yet impossible, since no amber with fossilized mosquitoes has ever yielded preserved blood. Amber is, however, conducive to preserving DNA, since it dehydrates and thus stabilizes organisms trapped inside. One projection in 1999 estimated that DNA trapped in amber could last up to 100 million years, far beyond most estimates of around 1 million years in the most ideal conditions, although a later 2013 study was unable to extract DNA from insects trapped in much more recent Holocene copal. In 1938, 12-year-old David Attenborough (brother of Richard who played John Hammond in Jurassic Park) was given a piece of amber containing prehistoric creatures from his adoptive sister; it would be the focus of his 2004 BBC documentary The Amber Time Machine.

Use

Amber has been used since prehistory (Solutrean) in the manufacture of jewelry and ornaments, and also in folk medicine.

Jewelry

Amber has been used as jewelry since the Stone Age, from 13,000 years ago. Amber ornaments have been found in Mycenaean tombs and elsewhere across Europe. To this day it is used in the manufacture of smoking and glassblowing mouthpieces. Amber's place in culture and tradition lends it a tourism value; Palanga Amber Museum is dedicated to the fossilized resin.

Historical medicinal uses

Amber has long been used in folk medicine for its purported healing properties. Amber and extracts were used from the time of Hippocrates in ancient Greece for a wide variety of treatments through the Middle Ages and up until the early twentieth century.

Amber necklaces are a traditional European remedy for colic or teething pain with purported analgesic properties of succinic acid, although there is no evidence that this is an effective remedy or delivery method. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the FDA have warned strongly against their use, as they present both a choking and a strangulation hazard.

Scent of amber and amber perfumery

In ancient China, it was customary to burn amber during large festivities. If amber is heated under the right conditions, oil of amber is produced, and in past times this was combined carefully with nitric acid to create "artificial musk" – a resin with a peculiar musky odor. Although when burned, amber does give off a characteristic "pinewood" fragrance, modern products, such as perfume, do not normally use actual amber because fossilized amber produces very little scent. In perfumery, scents referred to as "amber" are often created and patented to emulate the opulent golden warmth of the fossil.

The scent of amber was originally derived from emulating the scent of ambergris and/or the plant resin labdanum, but since sperm whales are endangered, the scent of amber is now largely derived from labdanum. The term "amber" is loosely used to describe a scent that is warm, musky, rich and honey-like, and also somewhat earthy. Benzoin is usually part of the recipe. Vanilla and cloves are sometimes used to enhance the aroma. "Amber" perfumes may be created using combinations of labdanum, benzoin resin, copal (a type of tree resin used in incense manufacture), vanilla, Dammara resin and/or synthetic materials.

In Arab Muslim tradition, popular scents include amber, jasmine, musk and oud (agarwood).

Consumer goods and technical devices

In the chemical industry, amber that was initially unsuitable for the jewelry industry was used to make amber varnish, amber oil, and succinic acid. Varnishes were usually made from rosin (the solid mass of molten amber left over after distillation of amber oil and succinic acid), turpentine, and linseed varnish, sometimes supplemented with litharge, in different recipes depending on the use of the end product (e.g., as ship varnish or floor varnish). At times, the horsehair of violin bows was coated with pure rosin (“violin resin”). Pure amber oil served as a wood preservative, which proved to be very effective, and succinic acid was used in the manufacture of certain paints. Today, these products are almost exclusively produced synthetically.

At the end of the 17th century, techniques for decolorizing amber emerged. The clear end product was used as raw material for optical lenses. Optical devices incorporating amber lenses remained in use until the middle of the 19th century. Until the Second World War (and in some cases, for example in Hamburg, until 1950), vessels made of amber were used for blood transfusions because they prevented blood clotting. Another very rare application was as electrical insulators, since the specific resistance of amber, at approximately 10 14 to 10 18 Ω•m, is greater than that of porcelain.

Processing and care of amber

Amber has been worked since the Stone Age. Due to its low hardness (Mohs hardness >2.5), this can be done without the need for machinery.

Tool

To work on amber, you will need wet sandpaper with grains from 80 to 1000, needle files with cuts 1 and 2, whiting (alternatively toothpaste), denatured alcohol, water, linen or cotton cloth, chamois leather (leather cloth), a small drill and twist drill (max. 1 mm), a medium-strength fretsaw (for cutting large pieces of amber) and fishing line (for threading a chain).

Processing process

The first step is to file and polish the amber. The unwanted weathering crust is removed with a needle file or wet sandpaper with a grit of 80 to 120. To build up the polish, circular movements are made with the amber or the sandpaper. The grit is gradually increased up to 1000. This process requires some patience, as the coarser sanding marks from the previous sandpaper must be smoothed before the next finer grit can be used. Furthermore, the amber should be thoroughly rinsed with water before each change of sandpaper to avoid overheating (which can create a sticky surface) and to prevent scratches.

In the second step, the amber undergoes polishing, the final step in the grinding process. A linen or cotton cloth is moistened with spirit and coated with whiting. The amber is polished with the prepared cloth in circular motions and then rinsed under water. Finally, the amber is polished with a chamois leather.

In the third step, a hole is drilled into the amber, if desired. The drill bit is clamped into an electric hand drill. The speed used should be low, and some practice in handling drill bits is beneficial, and not only for safety reasons. The drill bit must not be tilted or driven through the amber with great force, as amber is very sensitive to pressure and therefore the risk of breakage is very high. Should the amber break, a standard superglue will help.

Matt, less shiny, dull or older amber pieces can be given a beautiful shine with a little furniture wax.

Another form of processing is the work of the amber turner. In Germany, this specialization of the turner is only taught in one company in Ribnitz-Damgarten – the Ribnitzer Bernstein-Drechslerei GmbH.

Care and preservation

Under the influence of atmospheric oxygen and moisture, amber develops a weathering crust (through oxidation). This process, which often begins in the amber deposit (so-called earth amber usually has a strong weathering crust), continues when amber is preserved as jewelry or a collectible. To date, no method is known that could completely prevent this process without causing other adverse effects (e.g., limited examination options when encased in synthetic resin; risk of substances from the preservation matrix penetrating the fossil resin, etc.). All known preservation methods can therefore only slow the weathering process. For home use, it is generally sufficient to store amber in a dark, cool, and dry place. Amber jewelry should be rinsed regularly under warm running water and not exposed to sunlight, as amber quickly becomes brittle. Furthermore, soap, cleaning products, or chemical substances should not be used, as contact with these substances can cause irreparable damage.

Pieces of special (scientific) value, however, should be expertly conserved. This usually requires the assistance of a specialist (e.g., a conservator at a natural history museum). Some common conservation agents and methods are described by K. Kwiatkowski (2002). 

Imitation substances

Young resins used as imitations:

Kauri resin from Agathis australis trees in New Zealand.

The copals (subfossil resins). The African and American (Colombia) copals from Leguminosae trees family (genus Hymenaea). Amber of the Dominican or Mexican type (Class I of fossil resins). Copals from Manilia (Indonesia) and from New Zealand from trees of the genus Agathis (family Araucariaceae)

Other fossil resins: burmite in Burma, rumenite in Romania, and simetite in Sicily.

Other natural resins — cellulose or chitin, etc.

Plastics used as imitations:

Stained glass (inorganic material) and other ceramic materials

Celluloid

Cellulose nitrate (first obtained in 1833) — a product of treatment of cellulose with nitration mixture.

Acetylcellulose (not in the use at present)

Galalith or "artificial horn" (condensation product of casein and formaldehyde), other trade names: Alladinite, Erinoid, Lactoid.

Casein — a conjugated protein forming from the casein precursor – caseinogen.

Resolane (phenolic resins or phenoplasts, not in the use at present)

Bakelite resine (resol, phenolic resins), product from Africa are known under the misleading name "African amber".

Carbamide resins — melamine, formaldehyde and urea-formaldehyde resins.

Epoxy novolac (phenolic resins), unofficial name "antique amber", not in the use at present

Polyesters (Polish amber imitation) with styrene. For example, unsaturated polyester resins (polymals) are produced by Chemical Industrial Works "Organika" in Sarzyna, Poland; estomal are produced by Laminopol firm. Polybern or sticked amber is artificial resins the curled chips are obtained, whereas in the case of amber – small scraps. "African amber" (polyester, synacryl is then probably other name of the same resine) are produced by Reichhold firm; Styresol trade mark or alkid resin (used in Russia, Reichhold, Inc. patent, 1948.

Polyethylene

Epoxy resins

Polystyrene and polystyrene-like polymers (vinyl polymers).

The resins of acrylic type (vinyl polymers), especially polymethyl methacrylate PMMA (trade mark Plexiglass, metaplex).

Pressed amber

Pressed amber, developed in Königsberg in the 1870s, was used on an industrial scale in Vienna from 1881 onwards, and later also in the State Amber Manufactory in Königsberg, for the production of everyday objects such as cigarette holders, mouthpieces for tobacco pipes, the Turkish chibuk, knick-knacks (arts and crafts), and cheap jewelry. Pressed amber exported to Africa was also disparagingly referred to as Negro money. 

Pressed amber is made from compacted amber dust. Its characteristic features are its homogeneous consistency and relative opacity; unlike natural amber, it is known as genuine amber and does not contain any natural cracks and/or inclusions. 

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