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Amber is a hardened tree resin, consisting of compounds of terpenes,
alcohols, and esters. Trees produced it as protection against disease and insect infestation when the bark of a
tree was opened due to limb that broke away or attacks by wood-boring beetles, or for other reasons. After
oozing out, it hardened in wet sediments, such as clay and sand that formed at the bottom of lagoons or river
deltas and was preserved in the earth's crust for millenniums.
 The chemical composition of the resin acted as desiccant and
antibiotic which caused that animals like insects and non-insects (i.e. mosquitoes, flies, spiders, ants and their eggs and emerging
larvae) and even lizards and frogs, when caught in the resin, were entrapped and preserved as dehydrated fossil
inclusions, but without the shrinking effect dehydrations usually causes. They were kept in such a way that their
cellular structure and even fragments of the DNA can still be
found today.
But not only insects and small vertebrates are present in the amber findings, but also plants like
flowers, mushrooms, moss, leaves and seeds. Thus, it allows scientists to reconstruct the long-vanished ecosystem
of gone-by milleniums.
While Baltic amber formed from hardened resin of the pine tree, Pinus Succinifera, amber from the Dominican Republic originated
from an extinct species of broad-leaved tropical trees Hymenaea of the legume family, whose closest
relative is still found in East Africa.
Nevertheless, in the Caribbean and in Central and South America, another
relative of this ancient species is still grown and is called "algarroba".
Although there are many places where Amber is found,
larger quantities are mined in about twenty deposits around the world and mainly in Eastern Europe (Baltic),
in Mexico and in the Dominican Republic.
Amber from the Dominican Republic is renowned for
the diversity of inclusions it contains. Amber lovers, scientists and collectors alike value Dominican Amber for
the three rare "treasures", which are scorpions,
lizards and frogs. Probably only 30 to 40 scorpions, 10 to 20 lizards and 8 or 9 frogs have been found worldwide.
A piece of Dominican amber was discovered in 1997 and valued at over 50,000 US$. Why? I contained a small frog,
preserved in a magnificent way. The occurrence of insects in Dominican Amber is about 10 times higher than in
Baltic amber. Dominican amber is also 90 percent more transparent.
Another important fact about Dominican amber
makes it stand out from the amber found in other regions: It occurs in several colors, from a light yellow to a
deep red, the extremely rare smoky green and even blue. (See Blue Amber)
The warm beauty of amber caused that for thousands
of years it was regarded as a precious substance, and for its mysterious origin considered as a divine protection
from harm to the bearer of amber jewelry. As such, it also became to be used as an ingredient in medicines and for
religious purposes.
Already the Phoenicians traded amber as a prime commodity with the ancient Baltic peoples. Since about 3,000 B.C.,
Baltic amber was exchanged for goods from southern Europe and there were even ‘highways’ or
trade routes crossing Europe and leading into the Far East. Around 58 A.D.,
the Roman Emperor Nero sent a Roman knight on a search for this "Gold of the North" and brought hundreds of pounds of amber to Rome.
In later days, from 1283 on,
the Teutonic Knights, after returning from the crusades, became absolute rulers of Prussia and the Baltic sources of
amber, as well as the manufacture of objects made of amber, punishing transgressors with death by hanging. For the next 500
years, ambar was used again for mainly a religious purpose: Paternoster beads.
And what about Dominican amber? Columbus got a
surprise when he arrived in 1492 at the island which the Spaniards called
"La Hispaniola" (today Dominican Republic and Haiti), and received from a young Taino prince a pair of shoes
decorated with Caribbean amber, in exchange for a strand of Baltic amber beads that he had offered.
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