Amber

            And here is another oldie but goodie.  In fact, amber is about the oldest form of jewelry on this planet.

Amber is a fossilized resin of an extinct pine tree once submerged under the sea about 60 million years ago.  It is lightweight, warm, yet brittle and when rubbed smells pine-like and becomes electrified.  Its colors range from pale yellow, honey, reddish brown, brown, red, to almost black.  Bone amber is white. Bastard amber is cloudy while the best amber is clear. 

            We all remember Michael Creighton’s Jurassic Park.   Well, the Jurassic period was about 144 million years ago but the amber resin did not start to show up on land until about 60 million years ago. Do the math for me, okay. But in 1994, Dr Rual Cano of  California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo, a molecular biologist, reported that he and his colleagues had extracted DNA from a weevil trapped in a piece of amber that he dated to be 120-135 million years ago…when the dinosaurs roamed. Maybe Creighton’s idea isn’t so far off.

            David Federman, author of Consumer Guide to Colored Gemstones, stated, “(Amber) has helped paleontologists reconstruct life on earth in its primal phases. More than 1000 extinct species of insects have been identified in amber.”  (ICGA) along with gnats, flies, wasps, bees, ants, grasshoppers, praying mantises, beetles, moths, termites, butterflies, spiders, centipedes, scorpions, frogs, and lizards. (shgresources)

            Federman continues to state that even Stone Age man wore and worshiped amber Talismans and ornaments of amber have been found among the Bronze Age people, Greeks, Romans, Etruscan, Phoenicians, Persians, Egyptians, Byzantines, Vikings, Celts, Saxons, Chinese, Japanese and people of today.  Deposits have been mined from Burma, Sicily, Romania, Mexico, and Canada. Russia had a wonderful Amber Room stolen by the Hitler during WWII that has never been found though it has been reconstructed with new amber. 

            Homer mentions an amber jewelry as a pricey gift in his Odyssey.  In addition, the ancient writer Nicias states amber was the juice of the setting sun, congealed in the sea and cast upon the shores. The Greeks called amber ‘elekrton’ because in 600 B.C. a Greek man named Thales discovered that it was electrical charged. However, we now know it carries a negative charge and draws power and energy to the wearer.

            The Roman, Pliny the Elder, speaks of amber as a resin, noting how it floats and sometimes bears bugs in it. He also tells of a Roman Equestrian who was sent to collect amber by Julianus who was the aedile of the gladiatorial events during Nero’s reign. This Equestrian returned  to Rome with such a large amount of amber that all weapons, stretchers and all the equipment used that day were bore amber trimmings, even amber knots were put on the nets around the parapets of the arenas to contain the wild beasts. The heaviest piece of amber was weighed 13 pounds. 

            Pliny went on to say that, amber was a greatly valued luxury and that a statuette of a man, no matter how small, was worth more than “a number of slaves.”  In addition, that “amber is found to have some use in medicine, but this is not the reason it pleases women.” 

            The Celts also loved and revered amber especially set in silver. The Celtic sun hero was named Ambres. German amber known as Bernstein or the ‘burning stone’ had a sweet smelling piney scent and thus was burned as a purifying incense.  Amber was claimed to be the tears of the Norse goddess Freya, which were liquid gold, and when these tears of gold fell to the sea, they became floating lumps of amber. The trolls made Freya her famous magical amber necklace Brisingamen that got her into trouble with Oden.

            The Hellenic Greeks said amber was formed by the tears of the Heliads or sun nymphs as they wept for their dead brother Phaeton after he was struck to the earth in his sun chariot claimed to be made of amber as well. Another amber tears story comes from Sophocles who said the tears came from bird incantations of the sisters of Meleager as they flew around the earth.  Greeks also thought that amber ‘ambrotos’ (meaning immortal) were given to them by Hera, the keeper of the magic amber apples on the tree of life in the garden of paradise, or was it by Heracles who brought them from the Gardens of the Hesperides.  Nevertheless, as Pliny said, “Amber provides an opportunity for exposing the false accounts of the Greeks…. Since it is important to realize that not everything handed down by the Greeks merits admiration.”

            Christians claimed amber was tears of grief by certain birds after Jesus’s crucifixion. After conquering the pagan Russia in the 13^th century, the Teutonic Knights seized control of the amber trade because it was the preferred material for both Christian and Mohammedans rosary beads. The Knights claimed every piece of amber they found.  Anyone who held out, were hanged.  Guess what. Amber rosaries began to fall out of favor until four centuries later when the church encouraged the use of amber as a medicine.  

            Camillus Leonardus in 1502 claimed amber would cure diseases of the throat and belly. Necklaces of amber were believed to cure goiters.  Popular pipe stems and cigarette holders were made of amber even as late as today.  Amber is touted as a treatment for depression toothache, poisoning, malaria, hay fever, asthma and urinary infections. Amber supposedly promotes romantic love, purification, wisdom, energy, balance, and remembrance of past lives. Well, maybe amber was made of the souls of tigers entering the earth when the animals died as the Chinese traditions says. No matter. It is an awesome jewel to own.

            Random Tidbits: Jet is used in mourning and that is all I found for that jewel. Amber is not an anniversary stone for marriage at all nor is it a traditional birthstone of any kind other than for Taurians and as a lucky charm stone for Leos.