Alpaca Silver

What You May Not Know About Amber

The Symbol of Eternity—and Eternal Divinity

Introduction

The Alpaca Silver Store neither condones, approves, supports or further advances the theories, reports or beliefs put forth in these blogs concerning healing, metaphysical properties or acknowledgements.  They are merely put here for your enjoyment and information.  Further discussion and research should be accomplished before accepting at face value anything written here.  There had to be some fact, religion, hearsay, myth or information of some kind to justify any of the information mentioned in this blog.

Due to the length of this subject; there is a lot of information on Amber, I will publish this in five parts: 1 Introduction – History, 2 Description, 3 Properties – Simulates, 4 Locations – Uses, 5 Care and Cleaning – Mythology – Metaphysical – Healing.  This is the first part, Introduction and History.

Amber has been known since the ancient Greeks and was written about by Homer in the Odyssey.  Aristotle and Plato also mentioned Amber and Pliny the Elder explained its origins.

Amber deposits have been found that range between 360 and one million years old and belong between the Carboniferous and Pleistocene geological periods.   As sticky resin oozed from ancient pine trees, small insects, plant material, feathers and other small objects in the path of the flow became entrapped.  Over time, the resin was encased in dirt and debris and through a process of heat and pressure it fossilized to become Amber.

 

Amber increases in value with the rarity and perfection of the entrapped object.  Complete insect specimens are rare though and command top price.

REMARKS: Amber, the English designation for the fossil resin used as a gem rock, is noted in most English-language dictionaries to have the following general etymology:  Middle English Ambre > Old French Ambre > Medieval Latin Ambra (or Ambar), from the Arabic ‘anbar, which originally referred to Ambergris and only later also to Amber.  Alternative etymologies have, however, been suggested

History

Amber appears to have been picked up by man as long ago as Paleolithic time – e.g., Amber was found in the Gough’s Cave archaeological site in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England.  By Mesolithic time (8,000 to 6,000 B.C.), Amber was fashioned into amulets, beads, and bears, elk heads etc. that were apparently worn as pendants in what is now Denmark.  Amber has also been found in several other archaeological sites, dating from these periods – e.g., in Austria, the High Pyrenees, Moravia, Rumania and Schleswig-Holstein. Consequently, Amber has been referred to as the “golden gem of the ages” and is thought to have been “sought … by ancient Stone Age sun worshipers because it’s beautiful radiance resembled the sun’s rays”.

 

Dinosaurs have been more popular than ever since their starring role in the film Jurassic Park.  A more surprising result of the film’s popularity has been a worldwide surge in demand for Amber jewelry.  Although Amber’s use in adornment is probably as old as mankind itself, in recent times it has had a limited market.  Of course, that was before millions of people saw dinosaur DNA extracted from a mosquito trapped in Amber in the film.

So could a mosquito trapped in Amber really contain dinosaur DNA?  Most Amber just isn’t old enough, having had some 25 to 50 million birthdays at the most.  The dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period.  The Jurassic period was 144 million years ago.  But in 1994, Dr Raul Cano of California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, a molecular biologist, reported in the British journal “Nature” that he and his colleagues had extracted DNA from a weevil that was trapped in Amber 120 to 135 million years ago, when dinosaurs did indeed roam the earth.

The Amber, which was from the Lower Cretaceous period, was mined in the mountains of Lebanon south of Beirut by Aftim Acra, who has a collection of Amber pieces containing 700 insects, including termites, moths, caterpillars, spiders, pseudo scorpions, and midges, which do, after all, suck their host’s blood.

Millions of people learned from the film that Amber, which is fossilized pine tree resin, is ancient and valuable, like an antique from history.

Demand is especially strong for Amber with insects inside it.  “Amber is like a time capsule made and placed in the earth by nature herself,” said David Federman, author of the Consumer Guide to Colored Gemstones.  “It has helped paleontologists reconstruct life on earth in its primal phases.  More than 1,000 extinct species of insects have been identified in Amber.”

 

The desire for Amber is nothing new. Amber artefacts dating back to the Stone Age have been found in what is now Germany and Denmark.

“Stone Age man imbued Amber with supernatural properties and used it to wear and to worship,” says Mr Federman.  “Amber took on great value and significance to, among others, the Assyrians, Egyptians, Etruscans, Phoenicians and Greeks.  It never completely went out of vogue since the Stone Age.  Between 1895 and 1900, one million kilograms of Baltic Amber were produced for jewelry.”

The Romans sent armies to conquer and control Amber-producing areas.  The Emperor Nero was a great connoisseur of Amber.  During his time, according to the Roman historian Pliny, the price of an Amber figurine, no matter how small, exceeded the price of a healthy slave.

The ancient Germans burned Amber as incense, so they called it “Bernstein”, or “burn stone”. Clear colorless Amber was considered the best material for rosary beads in the Middle Ages on account of its smooth silky feel.  Certain orders of knights controlled the trade, and unauthorized possession of raw Amber was illegal in most of Europe by the year 1400.

The 90 % of Amber that is mined and sold today comes from the Baltic seacoast.  This large percentage attests to the widespread availability of Amber that was lacking elsewhere in the world.  Large-scale trade between Rome and far-flung outposts of Europe at the time such as Latvia, Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblasts, started during the Bronze Age.  The trade route that formed the basis of the exchange of Amber was dubbed the Amber Road.

In understanding the meaning of Amber to inhabitants of the region in ancient times, archaeological evidence has been found showing the importance of Amber and giving a clue to its symbolic meanings. In the 19th century, an archaeologist named Richard Klebs found over 300 talismans near the Curonian Lagoon in the western part of Lithuania. According to Marija Gimbutas, an American ethnographer and archaeologist of Lithuanian extraction, the yellow color of Amber symbolized death and life.

Amber is most often set in gold and silver jewelry. The Mediterranean countries started to trade in Amber for jewelry making as far back as 2500 BC.  Amber from this period has been found 600 miles from its place of origin.  Amber was very popular and highly valued in this time period, because it is softer than minerals and was easier to work with primitive methods.

The word “electricity” is derived from the Greek name for Amber, electrum.  This is because Amber can acquire an electric charge when rubbed.  Thales described this magical property in about 600 BC - and it remains one of the most useful methods of identifying real Amber in gold and silver jewelry.  There have always been claims that Amber rosaries and amulets can actually conduct current, discharging excess energy in the body.  Amber has long been worn and carried by men, as a talisman against sexual impotence.

Significant human cultural development is recognized as beginning in the Paleolithic. This lasted from 1,000,000 years BC and lasted up to 8,000 years BC. The earliest occurrence of Amber being used or possessed by humans is from France in the form of un-worked lumps found in ancient caves in Hautes Pyrenees and also in other sites in southern European countries.  None of these finds has so far shown any signs of crafting or carving.

The Baltic for much of this period was covered in glacier ice, but as this gradually thawed and retreated so the hunters moved ever further North in search of their quarry; reindeer and in the process reached the Baltic and the major source of Amber in Europe.

It is reported in a number of books that the earliest occurrence of “worked” Amber by man dates back to 7,000 BC and was discovered in West Zealand, Denmark. It was found in an ancient bog in a remarkable state of preservation as you can see in this site picture below, thanks no doubt to the anaerobic environment in which it had either been placed or fallen. The find is a pendant depicting four angular human figures and some striped patterning. Many of the Mesolithic articles depict human figures in one form or another.

 

David Grimaldi in his book “Amber - Window to the Past” cites an earlier occurrence however.  According to Grimaldi the earliest worked pieces of Amber were discovered in Southern England, near the Cheddar/Creswell crags in an ancient cavern called Gough’s cave.  The age of these beads lies between 11,000 and 9,000 years B.C. placing them in the earlier Paleolithic.

During the Paleolithic and Mesolithic period Amber was not thought to have been commonly traded but certainly Amber did begin to be exchanged amongst the existing peoples of that time. Amber or more precisely Succinite has been discovered in many ancient sites as grave goods and lost artifacts.

From the Neolithic, 4,000 years BC to 1,900 year BC and into the Bronze Age, 3,000 years BC to 1,000 years BC saw a remarkable expansion in the trading and distribution of Baltic Amber.  Farming began to supersede hunting as the predominate culture with larger settlements and villages beginning to appear.  With this came an increase in trading and exchanging of commodities with other tribes and groups.  Amber was no doubt one of these items.

The commencement of Amber trading has been roughly established as beginning about 3,000 years BC though certainly as has already been mentioned some Amber had been exchanged before that time.

It was during the Bronze Age that the famous Amber trade routes were established. These were accepted ‘highways’, trade routes across the whole of Europe and extending into the Far East.  These routes have been established by Amber finds found in archaeological sites around and along these ancient courses. These finds no doubt are the result of trading and exchanges done along these ancient tracks and roads.

It was from this period that it is thought the first Amber reached the British Isles in the form of raw Amber or possibly pre worked beads.  This excludes Amber that already existed and was found on the East Anglia coast of England. It is important to remember that this was a post glacial period with population numbers only just beginning to increase following a long period of zero to low growth in this region.

It is also evident that Amber began to play an important role in the cultural life of the peoples of this time. Its occurrence in grave goods and the prominence given to it clearly indicates that Amber was held in some awe by these ancient societies.

Amber from the Baltic and this period has been found as far away as Greece, Egypt, Northern Ireland and Mesopotamia.  The Egyptian Amber has been dated to approximately 3,200 year B.C. Schliemann reported finding large quantities of Amber in his excavations of Mycenae and the fabled city of Troy.

One of the most famous and well-preserved finds from this time is the famous Hove Cup.  This was recovered from a burial mound in Hove, a small town on the South coast of Britain. The find was a small round cup measuring 6.4 cm from top to bottom and 8.9 cm across.  One of the best photographs of this find is in Grimaldi’s book Amber - Window to the Past where its translucence and color is well displayed. The cup has been dated to 1,500 years BC and is held at the in Royal Pavilion, Brighton.

 

The advent of the Iron Age, approximately 1,000 years BC to 500 years BC saw a remarkable flowering in the quality of worked Amber.  Pieces discovered and retrieved from archaeological sites range from beautiful figurines and carved statutory through to brooches and jewelry which looks remarkably contemporary even today.  The geographic distribution of Amber from this period was extended still further across Europe and the middle and Far East.

Spekke in his book “The Ancient Amber Routes and the Geographical Discovery of the Eastern Baltic” attributes a significant amount of development and growth in Northern Europe to the resources put into and gathered from the trading of Amber during this time.

 

The Phoenicians were the major sea traders at this time and Amber was a prime commodity for them together with Tin.  (The latter was possibly traded from the Cornish in the South West Peninsula of the United Kingdom.) The Phoenicians traded with the ancient Baltic peoples for the Amber.  No doubt the price they paid for this rare gem was significantly lower than the value they subsequently traded it on for.

Phoenicians went to great lengths to hide the source of their golden bounty and ancient literature tells stories of Phoenician Ships Captains wrecking their own boats when being shadowed and followed by rival traders trying to ascertain the source of the Amber. (Would this be the first case of industrial espionage?)

Lucille Saunder MacDonald in her book “Jewels and Gems” relates a story that Phoenician traders told to help shield their Amber’s origin.

“Now that the Phoenician’s had seen the Amber gathered from the sea, they determined to keep the secret for themselves and thus guard the lucrative trade. When the fleets returned to Syria, many were the tales told of perils to the north, of lodestones which would draw the ships to destruction on hidden reefs, of whirlpools which would suck them down to the bottom of the ocean, of witches who enchanted men by turning them into beasts, of terrible sea serpents, and awesome monsters.  So well did these ancient sailors spin their yarns that for many centuries afterwards mariners feared these mythical perils”.

The Etruscans were a major trader of Amber during these early times.  A favored use of Amber was in the production of bronze and Amber fibulae and particularly jewelry worn by Etruscan woman of that time.

References to Amber from Greek literature abound.  Homer’s work, “The Odyssey”, contain numerous references, for example: “For Antonius his henchmen bare a broidered robe, great and very fair, wherein were golden brooches, twelve in all fitted with bent clasps.  And the henchman straightaway bore Eurymachus a golden chain of curious work, strung with Amber beads shining like the sun” Book XVIII.

 

It was the Greek philosopher Thales around about 600 years BC who first documented Amber’s ability to attract small seeds, dust, pieces of cloth when rubbed against wool.  The Greek word for Amber was elektron and this gives us the route of the modern day word electricity relating back to this earlier discovery of static electricity.

Italic and Greek interest in Amber faded between 600 BC and 800 BC even during the classical period of Greek history.  But the Roman Empire which began in 753 BC began to take up the interest in Amber when the former declined.  This was slow at first but Amber artifacts have been retrieved from these early periods.

As the Roman Empire grew, plundered as well as traded Amber began to flood into Rome.  Most of the Roman Amber antiquities recovered are as a direct result of the expansion of Rome’s frontier borders.  This reached its pinnacle in the immediate centuries before and after the birth of the man Jesus Christ.

Amber became such a prized possession that Pliny the Elder in his work “Natural History” detailed at length the various myths and legends regarding Amber’s origin but unequivocally stated that: “Amber is formed by the pith which flows from trees of the pine species, as a gum flows from cherry trees and resin from pines”.

It was a remarkable understanding that was lost and then re-established more than 1,500 years later. He also stated that the geographic origin of Amber was - “in the islands of the north of the Northern ocean that is called Glessum by the Germans, and that for this reason when Germanicus Caesar was commanding a fleet in those regions, the Romans gave the name of Glessaria to one of these islands”.

During the reign of the Emperor Nero a roman knight was dispatched to the far North to locate the source of the “Northern Gold”.  This was quite some feat at that time as the untamed regions of the Germanic tribes had to be negotiated and unknown territories traversed.

Pliny wrote; “There still lives the Roman knight who was sent to procure Amber by Julianus, superintendent of the gladiatorial games given by Emperor Nero.  This knight traveled over the markets and shores of the country, and brought back such an immense quantity of Amber that the nets intended to protect the podium from the wild beasts were studded with buttons of Amber.  Adorned likewise with Amber were the arms, the biers, and the whole apparatus for one day.  The largest piece the knight brought back weighed thirteen pounds.”

This was later to be recognized as a major influence in Rome’s history as this simple but daring act opened up many northern trade routes which up until that time had not been exploited.

On the other side of the planet in China, Amber was also playing a significant role in the life of the peoples there.  Little literature in English exists but the American Anthropological Association published “Historical Jottings on Amber in Asia” by Berthold Lauffer.  This is a brief but descriptive account of Amber in the literature of China.

The first reference to Amber in Chinese literature was in the Ch’ien Han shu (Annals of the Former Han Dynasty) written by Pan Ku and after his death completed by his sister Pan Chao.  It contains a reference to western countries and in particular Ki pin, which it states produces Amber, Ki pin is in fact, Cashmir.  The annal was written in 92 A.D.  Trading relations between China and Cashmir began during the reign of Emperor Wu (140-85 BC) according to Lauffer and so it is likely that Amber was traded into China at this time and perhaps a little earlier.

Pliny in his “Historia Naturalis” states that Amber is found in India, the specific entry reads: “That Amber is found in India too, is a fact well ascertained.  Archelaus, who reigned over Cappadocia, (A Roman province of the Emperor Tiberius) says that it is brought from that country in the rough state, and with the fine bark still adhering to it, being the custom there to polish it by boiling it in the grease of a sucking-pig. One great proof that Amber must have been originally in a liquid state is the fact that, owing to its transparency, certain objects are to be seen within - ants, for example, gnats and lizards. These, no doubt, must first have adhered to it while liquid, and then, upon its hardening, have remained enclosed within.”

With the shrinkage and the eventual demise of the Roman Empire that was effectively complete by the early fifth century AD the Dark Ages swept in. Literary references to Amber all but vanished. But Amber and its place in society and art did not.  Anglo-Saxon and Celtic crafts people produced some of the most beautiful and exquisite Amber pieces despite the barbarity of times.

 

The retrieval of artifacts from graves, barrows and other archaeological sites shows ancient trade routes formed before the rise of the Roman Empire and lost during it, slowly beginning to be re-established.

Germanic culture used Amber extensively in its ornaments and jewels, as did the Anglo Saxons.  But in the opinion of the author the use of Amber by the Celts was a pinnacle of Amber craftwork.

Trade

The ancient Amber trade route ran from the Baltic Sea, down the Elbe River, and on to the Danube.  From there roads led overland through the Brenner Pass into Italy, the heart of the Roman Empire. Rome was the undisputed center of the Amber industry.  The Romans used Amber in a number of different objects, including coins.  They apparently valued Amber even more than the fair-haired Baltic slaves, the harvesters of Amber, whom Tacitus regarded as savages.  Not until the third century A.D., when wars with the Goths made such trade in luxury items unsustainable, did the Roman domination of the Amber industry come to an end.

During medieval times Amber was the property of the finder.  However, the Baltics eventually came under the rule of the Dukes of Pomerania and, later, the Teutonic Knights, who exercised absolute control over all aspects of the Amber trade.  They even prohibited the unsupervised collection of Amber on beaches under penalty of hanging. As late as the 17th century fishermen were obliged to swear the “Amber oath,” a denunciation of Amber smugglers.  As the Knight’s power waned, guilds became increasingly important players in the Amber trade. The guild established in Danzig in 1477 still exists today.

In modern times Amber has remained a valuable substance as ornamentation techniques have become more complicated and the creations of the masters more exquisite. As more value is added to the raw material, the new product becomes more expensive. Ironically, Amber deposits tend to be located in countries which lack the required technology and skilled labor for adding value to the raw form.

Amber began to make something of a comeback in the medieval period.  The Teutonic Knights in 1283 became absolute rulers of Prussia and also created a monopoly on Amber production within the Samland Peninsula.  The major product became Paternoster beads.  In fact the makers of this particular religious article even had their own job title; Paternostermachers.

 

The Teutonic Knights ruled the Amber industry with an iron hand, to the extent that they forbade the collection of Amber from the Baltic beaches on pain of death. The Beach Masters or Amber Lords enforced this law and there are many accounts of unfortunates who picked up Amber and where hanged for it.

In the ensuing years licenses and agreements were granted to different bodies and personages, the licenses were granted and retrieved over the following 500 years. Paternosters remained the staple Amber product.

Bruge became one of the major centers of Amber manufacturing. In the 14th century more than three hundred apprentice Amber craftsmen were on record as working within the city.

By the end of the 14th century the sale of Amber as well as the gathering was completely encompassed and controlled by the Order, to such an extent that within the city of Königsberg (Now Kaliningrad) a mining site, it was forbidden for anyone to own or possess any unworked pieces of Amber.

The Teutonic monopoly was transformed over this period into a series of monopolistic Guilds. In 1480 the Danzig Amber Guild was formed.  The Guild consisted of Amber lathe turners who wanted to become another center for Amber working.  The Teutonic grip still existed but was answerable to the King of Poland. The Order complained to the king about the granting of this license seeing it as either a challenge to the existing Guilds in Bruges and Lübeck or a further dilution of power.  They failed to change anything.

One of the principles of control which was maintained throughout this time was the separation of the gathering of the Amber from the working of the Amber.  This was applied with some rigor and artists wishing to work with Amber outside one of the guild’s centers had to apply for a license to do so.  It was as late as 1641 before this protocol was breached and Königsberg was officially granted a guild for working Amber, the first place where Amber was both extracted and worked in the same place.

In the 17th century the Baltic Amber trade drew closer to becoming an industry. But the oppressive rule continued, the fisherman of the Baltic coast had to swear an oath to the state that they would turn in to the authorities anyone they knew guilty of illegally gathering Amber.

1713 saw the creation of a legend, The Amber Room.  Frederick William the First authorized the building of an entire room built of Amber.  Its’ beauty became famous and was visited by Tsar Peter, who was greatly taken by its splendor.  The room was later presented to him as a gift.

The Amber Room remained in the possession of Russia until 1944 when it mysteriously vanished.  What happened is not fully known, it is known that the Russians had removed the Amber panels from the room to a hiding and storage place in Novosibirsk.  Invading Nazi soldiers discovered this.  The room was crated up and transported to Kaliningrad. But in 1945 allied troops were about to move into Kaliningrad and the Amber panels were moved again.  Exactly where they were moved again is unknown.  Much speculation and tales have been told of where they lie, if indeed they do still exist.  Stories of new leads and new clues constantly re-appear in the press and for many people the hunt continue.

The Russian people have decided however not to let this loss continue, even if it means re building the room, which is exactly what they are in the process of doing.

Amber Room

The original Amber Room (English sometimes Amber ChAmber, Russian: Янтарная комната, German: Bernsteinzimmer, Polish: Bursztynowa komnata) in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg is a complete ChAmber decoration of Amber panels backed with Gold leaf and mirrors. Due to its singular beauty, it was sometimes dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World”.

The original Amber Room represented a joint effort of German and Russian craftsmen.  Construction of the Amber Room began in 1701 to 1709 in Prussia. The room was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and constructed by the Danish Amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram and remained at Charlottenburg Palace until 1716 when it was given by Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I to his then ally, Tsar Peter the Great of the Russian Empire.  In Russia it was expanded and after several renovations, it covered more than 55 square meters and contained over six tons of Amber.  The Amber Room was looted during World War II by Nazi Germany and brought to Königsberg.  Knowledge of its whereabouts was lost in the chaos at the end of the war.  Its fate remains a mystery, and the search continues.

In 1979 efforts began to rebuild the Amber room at Tsarskoye Selo.  In 2003, after decades of work by Russian craftsmen, the reconstructed Amber Room was inaugurated in 2003 in the Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Creation

The Amber Room was made from 1701 onwards in order to be installed at Charlottenburg Palace, home of Friedrich I, the first King of Prussia, at the urging of his second wife, Sophie Charlotte.  The concept of the room and its design was by Andreas Schlüter. It was crafted by Gottfried Wolfram, master craftsman to the Danish court of King Frederick IV of Denmark, with help from the Amber masters Ernst Schacht and Gottfried Turau from Danzig.

 

It did not, however, remain at Charlottenburg for long.  Peter the Great admired it on a visit and in 1716, Friedrich Wilhelm I, the first king’s son, presented it to him, and with that act cemented a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden.

In 1755 Tsarina Elizabeth of Russia had it transferred and installed, first in the Winter Palace, and then in the Catherine Palace.  From Berlin, Frederick II the Great sent her more Baltic Amber, in order to fill out the originals in the new design by the tsarina’s Italian court architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli.

The Amber Room represented a joint effort of German and Russian craftsmen. After several other 18th-century renovations, it covered more than 55 square meters and contained over six tons of Amber.  It took over ten years to construct.

World War II Evacuation

Shortly after the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II (Operation Barbarossa), the curators responsible for removing the art treasures in Leningrad tried to disassemble and remove the Amber Room.  Over the years the Amber had dried out and become brittle, so that when they tried to remove it, the fragile Amber started to crumble.  The Amber Room was therefore hidden behind mundane wallpaper, in an attempt to keep Nazi forces from seizing it.  However, the attempt to hide such a well-known piece of art failed.

Nazi soldiers disassembled the Amber Room within 36 hours under the supervision of two experts.  On 14 October 1941, Rittmeister Graf Solms-Laubach commanded the evacuation of 27 crates to Königsberg in East Prussia, for storage and display in the town’s castle.  On 13 November 1941, the newspaper Königsberger Allgemeine Zeitung reported on an exhibition of part of the Bernsteinzimmer in Königsberg Castle.

Last days in Königsberg

Orders by Hitler given on 21 January 1945 and 24 January 1945 allowed the movement of possessions.  From that day onwards, Albert Speer’s administration could move culture goods of priority “I (o)”.  Erich Koch was in charge in Königsberg.  Eyewitnesses claimed that crates had been sighted at the railway station.  They might have been put aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff which left Gdingen on January 30, and was sunk by a Soviet submarine.  Another possible location is Weimar, the location of a planned propaganda center.

Later in the war, Königsberg was heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force.  It suffered further extensive damage at the hands of the advancing Soviets before and after its fall on April 9, 1945. It remained thereafter under Soviet control, eventually renamed Kaliningrad.  The remains of the castle were destroyed by the Red Army during the 1960s.

Disappearance and Mystery

The Amber Room was never seen again, though reports have occasionally surfaced stating that components of the Amber Room survived the war.  Indeed, two elements of the room’s decoration (but not the Amber panels themselves) were eventually rediscovered.

There have been numerous conflicting reports and theories, among them that the Amber Room was destroyed by bombing, hidden in a now-lost subterranean bunker in Königsberg, buried in mines in the Ore Mountains, or taken onto a ship or submarine which was sunk by Soviet forces in the Baltic Sea.

Many different individuals and groups, including a number of different entities from the government of the Soviet Union, have mounted extensive searches for it at various times since the war, without any success.  At one point in 1998, two separate teams (one in Germany, the other in Lithuania) announced that they had located the Amber Room, the first in a silver mine, the second buried in a lagoon; neither produced the Amber Room.

However, in 1997 one Italian stone mosaic that was part of a set of four which had decorated the Amber Room did turn up in western Germany, in the possession of the family of a soldier who had helped pack up the Amber Room.

Destruction Theory

Recently, British investigative journalists Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, conducted lengthy research on the fate of the Amber Room, including extensive archival research in Russia.  In 2004 their book, “The Amber Room: The Fate of the World’s Greatest Lost Treasure”, concluded that the Amber Room was most likely destroyed when Königsberg Castle was burned out, shortly after Königsberg surrendered to occupying Soviet forces.

Documents from the archives showed that that was also the conclusion of the report of Alexander Brusov, chief of the first formal mission sent by the Soviet government to find the Amber Room, who wrote in June, 1945: “Summarizing all the facts, we can say that the Amber Room was destroyed between 9 and 11 April 1945″.  Some years later, Brusov gave a contrary opinion; the book authors insinuate that this change of opinion was likely due to pressure from other Soviet officials, who did not want to be seen as responsible for the loss of the Amber Room.

Among other information from the archives was the revelation that the remains of the rest of the set of Italian stone mosaics were found in the burned debris of the castle.  The authors’ reasoning as to why the Soviets conducted extensive searches for the Amber Room in the years after WWII, even though their own experts had concluded that it was destroyed, is that it served the differing motives of several elements in the Soviet government: some wished to obscure (even from other branches of the Soviet government) the fact that Soviet soldiers may have been responsible for its destruction; others found the theft of the Amber Room a useful Cold War propaganda tool, and did not want to let go of a grievance that could be aired advantageously; still others did not want to share the blame for its destruction (through their failure to evacuate the Amber Room to safety at the start of the war).

Russian officials have denied the book’s conclusions - angrily, in some cases. According to Adelaida Yolkina, senior researcher at the Pavlovsk Museum Estate: “It is impossible to see the Red Army being so careless that they let the Amber Room be destroyed.”  Other Russian experts were less skeptical, and had a different emphasis in their responses.  Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum, was very cautious in his comments, and said: “Most importantly, the destruction of the Amber Room during the Second World War is the fault of the people who started the war”.  In reply, Catherine Scott-Clark, one of the authors, indicated that they only came to their conclusions with reluctance: “when we started working on this issue we were hoping to be able to find the Amber Room.”

Since the book came out, a Russian veteran has given an interview in which he confirmed their basic conclusion as to the fate of the Amber Room, although he denies that the fires were deliberate.  “I probably was one of the last people who saw the Amber Room”, said Leonid Arinshtein, a literature expert with the nongovernmental Russian Culture Foundation, who was a Red Army lieutenant in charge of a rifle platoon in Königsberg in 1945.  “The Red Army didn’t burn anything”, he said.

A variation of this theory is common currency amongst present-day residents of Kaliningrad.  This is that at least part of the room was found in the cellars after WWII by the Red Army, in relatively good condition.  This was not admitted at the time in order that blame should continue to rest upon the Germans.  To preserve this story access to the ruins of the castle, which were substantial after WWII, was restricted, even to historical/archaeological surveys.  During the 1960s, access to the site was suddenly withheld and the ruins were blown up by the Army, sealing any access to the underground area.  The still uncompleted Dom Sovetov was built over the central area.  The remains of the room may still be sited underground; however, as mentioned above, Amber that is not cared for will crumble into dust.  It is presumed that this is what has happened and that the Russian authorities, even after Communism, have been unwilling to admit this.

Reconstructions

In Kleinmachnow, near Berlin, there is a miniature Amber Room, fabricated after the original.  The Berlin miniature collector Ulla Klingbeil had this copy made of original East Prussian Amber.  The exhibit fee at Europarc Dreilinden is donated to the Arilex-Verein Foundation to aid handicapped children.

In 1979 a reconstruction effort began at Tsarskoye Selo, based largely on black and white photographs of the original Amber Room.  Financial difficulties to the project were solved with USD $3.5 million donated by the German company Ruhrgas AG.

 

By 2003 the titanic work of the Russian craftsmen was mostly completed.  The new room was dedicated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the 300-year anniversary of the city of Saint Petersburg.

Possible 2008 Discovery

The latest discovery, as reported in February 2008, is of a 20-metre pit in Deutschneudorf, a small town near the German-Czech border.  The site reportedly matches intelligence from survivors who helped loot the fabled room, and initial probe reports are said to indicate the presence of a large quantity of gold or silver. Hans-Peter Haustein, mayor of the town, said “We’re confident it’s part of the Amber Room”.

On 20th Feb 2008, German treasure hunters claimed to have found the Amber room.  The discovery of an estimated two tons of gold or silver was made at the weekend when electromagnetic pulse measurements located the man-made cavern 20 meters underground near the village of Deutschneudorf on Germany’s border with the Czech Republic.

Opening the cavern to get into the chAmber cannot be completed until approximately Easter because it may contain booby traps and has to be secured by explosives experts and engineers.

According to a recent article in Der Spiegel, Heinz-Peter Haustein - who has been leading the most recent searches into the “Ore Mountains” region of Germany - believes that he has found the Amber Room.  Digging resumed February 26, 2008 at a site in the southeastern German town of Deutschneudorf, where treasure hunters believe there are close to two tons of Nazi gold and possibly clues to the whereabouts of the legendary Amber Room.   Treasure hunter Christian Hanisch said February 28, 2008 that the hunt for Nazi Gold and possibly the legendary Amber Room will end February 29, 2008 after the two men leading the expedition disagreed.

Another recent discovery was made by the Amber Room Organization in the mountains about 30 miles east of Weimar.  Henry Hatt, the German spokesman told the media that he knows where the Amber Room is hidden.  According to him, it was brought to Weimar together with a treasure of the Hohenzollern and Prussian Crown Insignia.  From Weimar, it was transported to the county of Saalfeld and hidden in an old underground mining chAmber.  Currently, the group is searching for a production company to make a movie about the discovery.  The ARO claims to have solved the “biggest mystery of WWII”.

Today, the Amber industry is expanding at an incredible rate. Some interesting facts were reveled in issue 27 of “Inclusion/Wrostrek” newsletter: “About 70% of the Amber artifacts produced in 1996 worldwide originated in Poland, and of those - 805 in the region of Gdañsk.  The number of Amber factories in the Gdañsk region increased from 600 to 3000 between 1989 and 1996, the number of artists and workers from 700 to 8500, and the amount of raw Amber used in the artifact production from 40 to 193 metric tons during that time.  Most of the Amber manufactured is imported from Samland (Russia).  In 1959 only 6 metric tons of raw Amber was used by 120 workers in 7 Amber factories.’

Origin of the Term

The English word Amber stems from the old Arabic word Anbargris or Ambergris and refers to an oily, perfumed substance secreted by the sperm whale.  It floats on water and is washed up on the beaches.  Due to a confusion of terms, it became to be the name for fossil resin, which is also found on beaches, and which is lighter than stone, but not light enough to float.

The presence of insects in Amber was noticed by the Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia and led him to the (correct) theory that at some point, Amber had to be in a liquid state to cover the bodies of insects.  Hence he gave it the expressive name of Succinum or gum-stone, a name that is still in use today to describe succinic acid as well as Succinite, a term given to a particular type of Amber by James Dwight Dana.

The Greek name for Amber was ηλεκτρον (Electron) and was connected to the Sun God, one of whose titles was Elector or the Awakener.  It is discussed by Theophrastus, possibly the first ever mention of the material, and in the 4th century BC.  The modern term electron was coined in 1891 by the Irish physicist George Stoney, using the Greek word for Amber (and which was then translated as electrum) because of its electrostatic properties and whilst analyzing elementary charge for the first time.  The ending -on, common for all subatomic particles, was used in analogy to the word ion.

Heating Amber will soften it and eventually it will burn, which is why in Germanic languages the word for Amber is a literal translation of burn-Stone (In German it is Bernstein, in Dutch it is barnsteen etc.).  Heated above 200°C, Amber suffers decomposition, yielding an “oil of Amber”, and leaving 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”.

Amber from the Baltic Sea has been extensively traded since antiquity and in the main land, from where Amber was traded 2000 years ago; the natives called it glaes (referring to its see-through similarity to glass).

The Baltic Lithuanian term for Amber is Gintaras and Latvian Dzintars.  They and the Russian term Янтарь, yantar) are thought to originate from Phoenician jainitar (sea-resin).

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