Amber -

Howard Scharfe and Marjorie Scharfe Hatpin Collection, amber hatpinAmber is a petrified pitch or resin, often with insects trapped inside and visible. Good history of it, and its uses by humans, at ://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/amber/amber.htm. Even the name "Bernstein" represents amber.

It washes up on beaches, at an age of some 30-90 million years (!), where in the old days, it was collected and traded along "The Amber Roads" of history - including the lovely beach at Sopot, Poland, see Poland Road Ways, Sopot, Amber Trade. Here is a site for working with Baltic amber: ://www.amberworld.com/roh2.htm. Read about The Amber Road at ://www.bernsteinstrasse.net/website.php?id=/en/news261/project-amber-road.htm.

This triangular one has carving on it. Bugs perhaps inside.


This little round one is clearer.

Amber made Knights and others rich. From the beaches in Poland to the Vistula River through Germany to the Po Valley in Italy. See ://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/amber.htm. Teutonic Knights controlled the trade for a long time. See Poland Road Ways, Malbork, Marienburg. Military maneuvers for the real purpose of economic gain - not a new concept, eh wot?