AMBER - a natural mineral resin coming from the conifers. If you light it or just heat it up in your hand, it produces a characteristic, resinous smell. Pieces of amber often contain bits of wood, plants as well as insects. Millions years ago the territory of present central and northern Europe was covered by thick "amber forests". The resin from the trees dripped down on the very moist bedding and then was carried with the current of streams and rivers to their mouths, where it settled in the sand. Many of those mouths were located on the area of today's northern Poland. Through the tens of millions of years the resin trapped in soil and water was a subject to many physical and chemical processes, to become amber in the end.

Amber applied in many historical periods to manufacture of decoration. In ancient Rome was valued yellow-golden amber, in middle ages - white, and in renaissance - red and yellow. In epoch of baroque amber was joined with wood and metal, e.g. to article of frames, boxes and altars. The famous "amber route" led from above Adriatic through Hungarys, Moravias, Silesia, along Wisla river to Baltic sea. Merchants travelling this route dealt first of all amber and slaves in instead of money and different values. At present amber is applied to production of jewellery, acid-resistant dishes, polishes and paints.


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