Christina here. The hero of my latest book The Runes of Destiny is a Viking merchant who trades in all kinds of goods - whatever will make him the most profit. However, when I researched the type of things he would be likely to bring on a trip to Miklagarðr (Byzantium), I became fascinated by one in particular – amber. The more I read about it, the more I came to appreciate it, and I could well imagine how pleased a Viking woman would have been to receive such a gift – who wouldn’t be? It also seemed like the ideal trade goods – it was easy to transport, didn’t take up much space, and was highly sought after everywhere, plus in some places you could actually pick it up for free! (If you knew where to look).
Known to mineralogists as succinite, the name amber apparently comes from the Latin ambrum and later anbar, the Arabic for ambergris (or grey amber), which is a completely different substance altogether. (There might have been some confusion because both materials can be found on beaches, washed up by the sea.) The Vikings called amber rav, which is the word the Danes and Norwegians still use, while in Sweden it is known as bärnsten. This means roughly “burning stone” and is because amber can actually be burned. If you do set fire to it, it gives off a pleasant scent, but it seems a great shame to me! I would much rather look at it and wear it in the form of jewellery.
The Romans and the Greeks loved amber, and in The Odyssey, Penelope (Odysseus’ wife) was given a necklace of gold and amber beads by a suitor. In Greek, amber is called élektron (from eléctor which means “shining”) and this has given rise to the word electricity because if you rub amber against a piece of material, it becomes electrically charged. In the past, it has also had more fanciful names, such as “sea gold”, “tears of the sun” (or “Freya’s tears” in the case of the Vikings) and “soul of the tiger”. In Sweden we have a saying: “kärt barn har många namn” (literally “a dear child has many names”), which basically means that when you value someone or something, you give it lots of nicknames – I guess that is true of amber.
Although not a proper gemstone, amber has been desired and valued for millennia, and used as something to barter with. It is easy to see why as in its polished state it is stunning. It can be see-through or opaque, but its beauty shines with a very special lustre, particularly in sunlight, and it is a material that is easy to shape and polish. Originally tree resin, most amber was fossilized 30-50 million years ago – mind-boggling really!
It comes in many different colours, although the most common ones are yellow, orange and brown as the name suggests – or a sort of clear whisky, syrup or honey colour. It can be reddish, black, green and milky white too, and in the Dominican Republic there is blue amber which is very rare. It turns that colour when it is struck by sunlight. Black amber can sometimes be confused with jet, which is a similar material – a type of fossilised wood from the Jurassic period. Jet is also very light and easy to carve.
There is fake amber, so to test if something is the real deal, you can rub it between your hands and it should smell sort of like pine trees. If you put it against your skin, it should also feel warm, or you could bite it gently to see if it’s soft.
Although it does occur in other parts of the world, the best amber comes from around the Baltic Sea. Here it is often washed up on along the shore, especially in the southern/eastern parts around Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (also Poland and Germany). It is lighter than rocks and floats in very salty water, but not in the Baltic which is fairly brackish. There, it tends to get caught up in clumps of seaweed and washed up onto the beaches. If you are lucky, you can also find it in the south-western most part of Sweden, and when I visited there two years ago I went and had a look. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything, but I was told chances were higher after a storm or very early in the morning before other amber-hunters had been around. Winter is the best time to go and search for it as high winds are more likely. I would love to try again some time! There are mines as well, and one of the main ones is to be found in Kaliningrad in Russia.
Sometimes, if you are lucky, the amber has inclusions – either tiny dead insects or more often plant material, such as seeds or even leaves, that became trapped inside the resin. (I must admit I feel very sorry for them!). Even little air bubbles look pretty and adds to the attraction. Amber with anything contained inside is always more valued and therefore expensive, but when buying these you have to be careful because there are lots of fakes around. (See photo of a piece I bought that has what looks like a piece of fern – this was created by heating the amber and adding the plant, then cooling it down again). Although the creatures found preserved this way are usually very small, like ants, mosquitoes, flies and spiders, there have been the odd finds of larger animals such as frogs, scorpions and lizards (see here an article about a lizard). Those are very rare though.
I’m sure we are all familiar with the premise for the 1993 movie Jurassic Park, where the plot centres around the fact that scientists have purportedly extracted dinosaur blood from mosquitoes stuck in amber. They use this to clone living dinosaurs and then create a park filled with them. Unfortunately, this is merely fiction and can’t be done – there is no blood, in mosquitoes or otherwise. It is, however, possible for amber to preserve DNA, so perhaps in future this might be used to clone ancient animal species – who knows?
In the past, amber was thought to have magical and healing properties and could protect you against evil and illness so amulets or talismans were popular. Sometimes extracts were used for medicinal purposes too both in Europe and China.
Because amber is fairly soft, it is easy to work with. It can be cut or carved with a knife and then shaped or polished on a lathe. Drilling can be tricky and it is best to drill from both sides to avoid the amber cracking. It is perfect for beads and rings for example and Viking women were very fond of bead necklaces, both of amber, glass and any other shiny materials.
If the amber is slightly opaque, it can be made clear by slowly heating it up to boiling in vegetable oil and then slowly letting it cool down again. Colour and shine in finished amber is best enhanced by rubbing it with a cloth dipped in vegetable oil. Like with natural pearls, the lustre of amber is increased by wearing it next to your skin.
The most famous use of amber is probably the so-called Amber Room which was an entire room decorated with panels of amber.
It was first installed in a palace in Berlin, Germany, in the 18th century, but later given by the Prussian king to the Russian Tsar. He had it put into the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo near St Petersburg. During the second World War it was looted by the Nazis and subsequently disappeared. The original pieces were never found, but a reconstruction was constructed and installed in 2003 and can now be viewed in the palace once again. I would love to see that!
Do you like amber and/or own some? Have any of you been to St Petersburg to see that famous room? Or have you seen any other beautiful pieces, for example in museums? I am now officially hooked on this lovely material!