Amber

Amber has been a material of desire since antiquity. We know now that it is 40 million-year-old fossilized tree sap, but in ancient times there was no known origin.

It often was found washed up on the shore of the Baltic Sea and other bodies of water. This prompted Ovid in the 1st century CE to attribute it to the tears of a minor sea goddess, Clymene, the mother of (by Helios, the sun god) of Phaethon, who begged Helios to let him drive the chariot of the sun, lost control, and was killed by a thunderbolt from Zeus to prevent disaster. Phaethon's mother and sisters were so devastated by their loss that they turned into poplar trees. Amber was the remains of their tears before they transformed. In fact, the Greek word for amber was electrum, derived from the Greek word for the sun.

Other myths to explain it were the death of Meleager, whose mother's tears turned to amber; solidified sunlight; material originating in a temple in Ethiopia; from a river in India; solidified urine of the male lynx (its dark color resembled amber). Aristotle called it "hardened resin," but others looked for more interesting origins.

The Roman writer Pliny the Elder, while including all materials and precious stones in his Natural History, noticed that burning amber produced a pine scent, and that it was observed to sometimes have insects trapped inside. Concluding that the insects got into it while amber was in a liquid state, he concluded that it was the sap of the pine tree. He also felt that the sap became amber because of the interaction of the sea, since it was found on shores.

After the 3rd century CE, Roman interest in amber seemed to wane, but in the Medieval Era its popularity as revived by the Armenians, who made it into jewelry and kept a healthy trade with other areas through the Amber Road.

Its popularity as jewelry or art came because it was relatively easy to carve and shape. Above you can see an Anglo-Saxon amber necklace from a female burial at Linton Heath in Cambridgeshire dated 450-550 CE. But its popularity went beyond merely being attractive. It was considered to have medicinal and even mystical properties. I'll tell you about them tomorrow.