AMBER - Archaeology & History

For millennia, humans have been fascinated by amber and with good reason. There is no material in nature like amber. Its warm and golden colors, which can light up as if it was the sun itself, can be breathtaking to us, but to the people who lived in the time before we invented materials like plastic, amber was associated with something quite divine. Some of the oldest human processing of amber is about 14,000 years old and originates from Denmark.

Among the processing we often find pearls, pendants with engravings and in rare cases amulets designed as animals and tools. By virtue of grave finds further down in Europe, we know that in the Bronze Age (1700 - 500 BC) there was an increased trade in amber from the Baltic Sea, and in the Iron Age (500 BC to 400 AD) the rest of the world got its eyes on the amber.
Important trade routes came between the northern and southern parts of Europe, which brought prosperity and wealth with them. In the ancient Roman Empire, amber was believed to contain the key to achieving eternal life and a small figure of amber had the same value as an adult slave.

To this day, amber is still highly coveted - however, we know that it does not contain the key to eternal life, nor is it valued on the basis of the value of a human life, but as a jewelry material, prestige and collector's item, it is highly coveted and Scientifically, amber has an irreplaceable value.

Ever since the first humans reached the Northern Europe after the last ice age, they have been fascinated by this warm, bright and light material. In fact, the oldest traces of the first inhabitants in Denmark are their amber jewelery and flint tools (about 14,000 years old). The oldest amber pieces often have a pattern incised - this pattern is often repeated over the entire surface of the piece. The pieces have been used for a very long time, often the hole where the leather strap has passed through is worn up - Some have even had both 3 and 4 new holes drilled with flint tools as they wear.

Later in the Danish Hunter era (about 7000 years ago) humans began to carve out the hunting animals in amber - e.g. elk, duck, bear, etc. - they may have had a magical meaning, perhaps been in use before a hunt. For approx. 6000 years ago, our ancestors in Denmark became permanent residents and farmers. Now the amber was a symbol of prosperity - it was used as sacrificial offerings in bogs and often brought to the grave. During this period, there have also been people who have specialized in amber grinding (for example, a depot of 4 kg has been found at Salling - 13,000 completely freshly cut and unused pearls). During this period, large and intricate pearl chains were made, often with large flat collecting pearls.

In the Danish Bronze Age (1800 - 500 BC) there was no direct trade in e.g. southern Europe. But you often had a good neighborhood with other tribes, and it came, among other things. for expression with gift exchange, and here one can perhaps get an impression of how important the amber has been. The Scandinavian and northern European amber has thus been exchanged as a significant gift from tribe to tribe down through Europe. During this period, the amber has reached down to the south of France, Italy and Greece, where 1300 pearls have been found in a single grave. These amber finds have been analyzed by spectral analysis and they are amber from northern Europe, and not local finds. Even in Tutankhamun's tomb in Luxor, in the middle of Egypt, there was a lot of amber, i.a. a chain of giant amber pearls - earrings with gold, amber and turquoise - crows carved in amber (this amber, however, is almost black from the many years in the burial chamber). The amber reached Persia and some pieces all the way to India and China. This period is also the richest in Danish history with many gold finds. The Danes themselves apparently only used the amber to a lesser extent. The Phoenicians traded a lot with amber, and perhaps they have had a few sailing expeditions north, to find the place where the amber came from. More certain is that Pytheas from Marseille in 325 BC. came up along Spain, France and through England to Raunonia and Abalum, where amber came in on the coast in large quantities in the spring - it must be places on the west coast of Jutland in Denmark.

In the last 500 years BC, regular trade routes came down through Europe, from Denmark and the Kaliningrad area, down to the Roman Empire, which was a major consumer of amber, almost all the rich Romans wore amber jewelry, many figures and reliefs were cut in amber, and amber beads were made on lathes. Emperor Nero sent a large expedition north to procure amber, and several tons of amber were brought back. At the next performance in the colosseum, all the knots in the net that were supposed to protect the spectators from the wild animals were tied around a piece of amber.

In the 3rd and 4th century AD. there was much unrest in Central Europe, and the amber trade almost came to a standstill.

Around the year 700, the first urban communities in Denmark emerged and here the amber grinder had its workshop - it is i.a. found in Ribe and in Hedeby. The Vikings made many things in amber - game pieces, faces cut in amber and finger rings made entirely in amber - they were of course fragile. The Vikings were not only warriors, but perhaps more of a merchant people, and brought the amber far and wide. In the time from Christianity came to Denmark and until the Reformation, amber was used almost exclusively for rosaries and incense in the church.

After the Reformation with great autocratic kings, completely unique amber works were produced in northern Europe. Amber-turning whit a lathe was also a "royal" hobby, with many in the royal family turning amber jewelry, often paired with gold and ivory. Many of these works can be seen at Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen. The most unique work is the 1.1 m high chandelier. It was made by Lorenz Sprengler in 1753, and contains a wealth of details. An Athena figure with spears in a temple forms the center, and around the branches are parrots sitting on their own sticks, royal crowns on pillows, etc. At Rosenborg there are also chess games, plates, and a ship made of amber. Much of the amber used in Copenhagen has probably had to be picked up in Königsberg (Kaliningrad), because it was difficult for the king, who was resident on the east coast of Zealand, to get it from the from the Danes who lived on the west coast of Jutland, where most Danish amber is found.

In the year 1682 the beach court was leased out, and for a small amount everyone could have the right to collect amber. In 1782, the king again tried to tighten the rules. The beach wardens, together with their assistants, were to be in charge of all amber collection, which was then forbidden to everyone else. The amber then came up for auction, but from the auction figures it is again clear that the amber went elsewhere. In 1788, only 55 pounds of amber were collected throughout Denmark. The amount collected decreased further in the following years. In 1795 it became only about 1 pound small pieces. Thereafter, it was more or less abandoned to demand compliance with the law, but it still existed until 1868.

Then a large piece of amber was found in Vorupør by 3 boys. They delivered it as they should, but as no one else did, and the chief of police put it up for auction. The finance minister would only give the boys a third in fines. Some citizens then sued the ministry, and the case ended in 1871 in the Supreme Court, where the ministry lost and had to pay the full amount of 51 thaler and 32 shillings to the boys. It was then decided that amber collection was given free again. At this time, amber was often used for snuff boxes (among the richest), and for amber pipes for smoking. Almost everyone got an amber pipe for the confirmation, it was almost a symbol of growing up.

At the beginning of this century, a lot of amber was used for fine turned amber beads - often turned on old spinning wheels or sewing machines. After World War II, interest in amber dived for a number of years. The plastic was invented and you could quickly and cheaply make high quality look-alikes of exactly the same pearl chains in this material. In addition, people also began to really open their eyes to the scientific value that amber stores - that thanks to amber, one could study the life that was on earth a long time ago, but it was still uncertain how old the amber was.

Over the last 25 years, interest in amber has increased greatly again. People have again understood to appreciate the natural - it is also a bit amazing to stand with a piece of amber that is formed by nature in a giant forest of approx. 34-48 million years ago.

Something that has certainly helped to increase people's interest and awareness of amber is Steven Spielberg's film classic Jurassic Park from 1993. This cemented the awareness of the almost magical property of amber in people's consciousness across the globe and ever since there has been a growing interest in amber from both the jewelry industry and the scientific community. Another important factor for the increased awareness around amber has been the increased technology of modern technology for communication such as facebook. It has brought people across social circles, across national borders and areas of interest together and created a platform for knowledge exchange and trade.

The most amazing amber work ever done in the whole world was started in Prussia in 1701 by King Friedrich Wilhelm 1. The amber room, an entire room where all the walls were lined with amber plates with carved reliefs. All furniture was also covered with amber plates, and candlesticks, vases ect. were made entirely of amber. For the first 7 years, the work was mainly done by an artist from the Danish court, Gotfred Lacquei, but he got disagreements with the king and traveled home to Copenhagen. The work was taken over by Thurau and Schacht from Danzig and was completed in 1711. It was the largest work of its kind done in amber, weighing almost six tons. The amber room was supposed to be an absolutely amazing sight when the sunlight came into the room. Visitors described it as standing in the middle of a golden treasury, and it was undoubtedly the king's life's work and pride.

In 1713, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great came to visit and saw the Amber Room, he was very impressed and began to praise the room fiercely. The Prussian king could probably sense that he had no choice but to offer the tsar the amber room as a gift, and of course the tsar said thanks. It has undoubtedly been very hard for the Prussian king to get rid of the amber room, and it also took a few years before it was packed down and sent to Russia. The Tsar, of course, also sent a gift to the Prussian king. To rub a little more "salt in the wound", the gift consisted of 55 Russian soldiers, all over 2 meters tall, "to raise the standard of the Prussian Guard". At that time, there was no doubt about the balance of power between the two states.

Between 1740 and 1760, the Amber Room was set up in the summer palace outside Sct. Petersburg. Here it was until 1941, when the Germans conquered the area. Throughout the war, the Russians and Germans looted hundreds of thousands of works of art from each other, and the Amber Room was the Germans' most valuable and prestigious loot. When the Germans arrived in Pushkin in the summer of 1941, the Russians tried to hide the amber room by sticking wallpaper over the amber panels, but it did not fool the Germans for very long. To the left is one of the very few pictures found of the amber room before the Nazis took it down.

The German Count Sommes Laubach, the German "Art Protection Officer" who often boasted of his rank in art history, once looked at the Amber Room and decided that it had to be transported back to Germany for its "safety". It took six men 36 hours to disassemble it, and pack it in 28 boxes. The boxes were sent west by train. From 1941 to 1945, the Amber Room was stored in Königsberg Castle, which was then part of East Prussia. Königsberg was then a storage place for large depots of amber, and was also the place where the Amber Room was first set up. After a British attack on Königsberg in August 1944, it was packed down in the basement under the castle. At the end of the war, the Russians destroyed the castle, and the Amber Room was reported missing. To the left is a picture of Königsberg Castle in the 1950s.

Did it melt in the fire after the RAF bombings? Is it buried under the castle? Did it disappear on board the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff, which was torpedoed in the Baltic Sea by a Russian submarine? Or did it disappear by train to Weimar, then be buried under Weimar County Hall? No one knows, although many have said they did.

In 1991, during a visit to Germany, President Yeltzin said he had evidence that the Amber Room was hidden in a particular Nazi bunker, but when historians looked, they found nothing. Hitler had plans to make the Amber Room one of the rarities in the Museum of World Culture in Berlin, which he had planned to build if he had won the war. But it is reported that others also had plans with the Amber Room. Eric Koch, who during the war was a prominent Nazi in Königsberg, is said to want the Amber Room and many other works of art. On his deathbed in 1986, he should have said, "Where my riches lie, so does the Amber Room - but the question is still - where is it?"

Many people have spent the last 50 years looking for the Amber Room, where the total cost exceeds at least 100 million USD. There are Swedes who have trawled in the Baltic Sea, there are German private investors who have dug through large areas of forest, but the mystery still remains. In 2009 and 2013, partial archaeological excavations have not found anything under the castle in Königsberg, instead it is reported that smaller parts of the artwork have been found on the black market - whether they originate from the original room, or are copies of the original is not known.

In 1979, the Russians began to recreate the amber room from the many drawings, and few rare photographs. It was paid for by the Russian state. But after the fall of the wall in November 1989 and the political upheavals that followed in Russia, it was no longer possible to afford to pay for the huge amounts of amber that went to the restoration. The workers worked for free as long as amber was available - for what else were they to do. In 1999, the German company E-On Ruhrgas AG stepped in and donated $ 3.5 million so that the work could continue. The reproduction of the Amber Room in Catharinas Palace was completed in 2003 to St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary.

Here one might perhaps rightly say that in the first instance it was the Germans who destroyed the original Amber Room, but also the Germans who later made it possible to complete this "eighth wonder" of the world. However, it is reported that E-On Ruhrgas AG could also have other interests than to show their great generosity. When this money was donated, Ruhrgas received a third of their natural gas from Russia.

The amber room has for the last 300 years been the subject of human envy, fascination, speculation, intrigue and big politics, and just as much, the room also represents sublime beauty and craftsmanship. It reflects humans great love of amber as material, dreams, the desire to create and the need to own the greatest and most beautiful. The amber room is and will always be shrouded in mystery, and in itself it stands out as one of the world's eighth wonder.