Amber finding locations
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[edit] European Amber finding locations
Natural amber is found all over Europe. An accurate and detailed overview of amber finding locations is found in a guide to professional amber technology in German language (Ref. 1). Some of the finding places (e.g. the Pyrenees, Northern Spain, the rivers Po and Rhone, the Adriatic coast, Liguria (near Genua and Piemont), Scythia (Ukraine, the Krim area, Russia), Britain, the Frisian islands in the Nort Sea, the Baltic coast, maybe also Sicily and the Cedar wooded coast of Lebanon) documented in map 1 have been in use in prehistoric eras.
The Roman historian Pliny Secundus (born 23 A.D., died 79 at the outbreak of Mt. Vesuv) describes the following legendary amber finding locations in his work "Naturalis Historia" book 37 (30-53). Most of these legends describe amber at finding places in map 1, where even today small quantities of amber are being found. The "Argonautica" refers to amber finding places at the rivers Po and Rhone.
[edit] Quotes from "Naturalis Historia" by Pliny
Many poets (Aischylos, Philoxenos, Euripides, Nikandros, Satyros) reveal amber findings at the river Eridanos. Pliny identifed the Eridanos as the river Po (Padus) in Northern Italy.
Some authors claim amber finding places at the Electrides-isles at the coast of the Adratic Sea at the mouth of the Po-river.
Aischylos claims the amber locations at the Eridanos and Rhodanos (Rhone) river are located in Iberia (Spain), but Euripides and Appolonios believe the Padus (Po) and Rhodanos (Rhone) river are both situated at the Adriatic Sea.
A few authors describe amber finding locations at the rocky coastline of the Adriatic Sea.
Theophrastos claims amber pieces are being excavated in Liguria.
In contrast Chares describes the amber is being created at the island of Ammon in Ethiopia.
Philemon claims amber is being excavated at two locations in Scythia.
Zenothemis describes amber as petrified urine of lynxes, living near the river Padus.
Sudines and Metrodoros however describe a tree named Lynx, which is found in Liguria and produces amber.
Sotacos believes amber is pouring from rocks, named Electrides and located in Britain.
Pytheas describes a Germanic island "Abalus", where amber is being landed at the shoreline. Timaios acclaims to Pytheas, but is naming the island "Basilea".
Nicias believes amber to be thrown onto the Germanic shorelines from the ocean waters, but to the shores of Egypt and India as well. Theochrestos and Xenocratos claim amber is thrown onto the Pyrenees mountains from the ocean waves.
Asarubas describes a lake Cephisis, which is located near the Atlantic Ocean and is named "Electron" by the Maurs. Being heated by the sun the waters of the lake start producing amber. Mnaseas names an African towns Sicyon and a nearby river Crathis, in which a similar process produces amber.
Themenes describes the garden of the Hesperides near the Great Syrte and lake Electron, where amber is flowing from the trees.
Ctesias describes the Hypobaros river in India flowing from the north into the eastern Ocean, where the shores are populated by amber producing trees, named "psitthachores".
Mithridates describes amber finding places at an island Serita at the coastline of Carmania, populated with Cedar trees.
Plinius Secundus ascertains amber finding locations at the islands of the Northern Seas, which have been identified and named Glaesaria by Germanicus Caesar. The barbarians are naming these islands Austeravia.
[edit] Non-European amber finding places
Greenland, Alaska, Canada, Manitoba-Cedarsea, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Tennessee, Mexico, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Brazil, Chile.
Japan, Sakhalin, Fushun, Siberia (Jakutia, Kasachstan, Taimyr, Jenissei), Azerbaijan, Armenia, Lebanon.
Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia, Burma, East India.
Guinea, Nigeria, Tanzania, Madagascar.
[edit] Source/Literature
- "Bernstein-Tränen der Götter" by M. Ganzelewski und R. Slotta (1997 edition, ISBN 3-7739-0665-X), a guide to professional amber technology in German language.
- "Naturalis Historia" book 37 (30-53), Pliny Secundus (born 23 A.D., died 79 at the outbreak of Mt. Vesuv)
- "Argonautica", Appolonius Rhodios, 295-215 b.C.
