Gemstones Amber

Gemstones Amber

The Age of Amber Stone
By Mithun Rao

Amber is made up of fossilized tree resin. It is millions of years old. As such, it is a time capsule containing souvenirs from the early history of life on our planet. Ancient beads and carvings testify to the beauty that even prehistoric man found in this organic gem. Amber is the gem that glows like honey or sun-drops. Most scientists agree that it would be unlikely to find something so ancient. Most amber is 25 to 50 million years old.

The color of this gem varies from yellow to dark brown to almost black. It is very rarely found in green and blue-gray colors. The color denotes the area from where it has originated. Also one can judge the age of the amber from its colour.

Paleolithic man in Austria also used amber gemstones (45000 - 12000 B.C.). The nomadic hunters of the Mesolithic age (12000 - 4000 B.C.) used it to hunt animals. They carved phases of the moon, hunting seasons and the animals that they hunted on this gemstone.

The Neolithic man (4000-1900 B.C.) started using this gem as decorative articles and jewels. The rich people of these societies usually owned jewelry made from this gem and used to gift it to their friends and relatives.

Later, towards the end of the eighth century B.C. the Greeks started using this gemstone for inlay work in gold and ivory. Romans used this gemstone in the first century B.C to first century A.D, where they made rings and vessels out from it.

The ancient Greeks called amber 'Elektron' which means 'made out of the Sun'. One ancient account explains that 'amber is the juice of the setting sun that congeals in the sea, which is why it can be found on beaches.

The amber stone was mined in the mountains of Lebanon by Aftim Acra, who has a collection of amber pieces containing 700 insects, including termites, moths, caterpillars, spiders, pseudo-scorpions, and midges. Over 1,000 species of extinct insects have been found in amber.

The Baltic States and the Dominican Republic are the two main sources of amber in the market today. Gems from the Baltic is older and more valuable but the ones from the Dominican Republic is more likely to have insect inclusions, which are prized by collectors.

The largest mine in the Baltic region is in Russia, west of Kaliningrad. Baltic amber is found in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Russia, and occasionally washed up on the shores of the Baltic Sea as far away as Denmark, Norway, and England. Myanmar (Burma), Lebanon, Mexico, Sicily, Germany, Canada, and Romania are other sources of amber.