In the 1730s, organic chemist Curt Beck began using infrared spectroscopy to successfully identify Baltic amber, and because it only requires a sample size of about two milligrams, Beck’s method is a much less ruinous solution. Baltic amber is not necessarily preferable to any other kind of amber–in fact, Beck comments that it is visually indistinguishable from the local varieties found elsewhere.
Amber is a fossilized resin from coniferous (pine) trees that has been collected by people living along the shores of the Baltic Sea since the Bronze Age. Several coastal villages were adorned with gallows awaiting captured amber-thieves.
Amber working became a means of living for the majority of the inhabitants of the region. They would find amber in lakes, rivers, and streams, as well as while digging ditches and wells or ploughing their fields. Celtic merchants revived the old amber routes and forged new ones linking Italy and Iliria to the “Amber Coast” of the Southern Baltic Sea. By the first century AD, Roman demand for amber was so great that it drove the creation of “Amber Routes” from the Mediterranean to various points along the Baltic coast. The Vistula amber earrings route linked the Gdansk Coastal area with the [...]
Tags: Amber jewellery, Baltic Amber, Natural amber, necklace