Amber – Harry & Co Jewellery

Definition, Uses, and Cultural Significance of Amber

Amber is fossilized tree resin appreciated for its color and natural beauty.
It is valued as a gemstone, used in jewelry, and has cultural and traditional significance.
Amber is used in folk medicine and traditional Chinese medicine for its healing properties.
It has been used in ornaments, smoking tools, and glassblowing mouthpieces.
The Palanga Amber Museum is dedicated to fossilized resin.

Amber can contain animal and plant material as inclusions.
There are different types of amber, including Baltic amber, resinite, ambrite, and ambergris.
Amber can be classified into five classes based on their chemical and structural composition.
Class Ia, Ib, Ic, II, and III ambers have different chemical constituents.

Amber has been discussed by ancient scholars like Theophrastus, Pytheas, and Pliny.
It has a long history of use, with evidence of its use in ancient Italy and China.
The oldest recovered amber dates back to the late Carboniferous period, approximately 320 million years ago.
Amber becomes abundant in the Early Cretaceous, around 150 million years ago.
Lebanese amber and Burmese amber provide evidence of ancient ecosystems.

Amber is composed of fossilized resinous bodies and an insoluble bituminous substance.
It is formed through free radical polymerization of precursors in the labdane family.
Amber has a hardness between 2.0 and 2.5 on the Mohs scale and a refractive index of 1.5–1.6.
It decomposes when heated above 200°C, yielding oil of amber and amber colophony.
Amber contains succinic acid and emits aromatic fumes when burned.

Amber is globally distributed and can be collected by hand, dredging, or diving.
The coast west of Königsberg in Prussia was historically the world's leading source of amber.
Juodkrantė in Lithuania is a major mining town of amber.
Amber can be treated, softened, clarified, and pressed for various uses.
There are imitation substances like copal, Kauri resin, plastics, and other materials used to imitate amber.

Reference	URL
Glossary	https://harryandcojewellery.com.au/blogs/glossary/amber
Wikipedia	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber
Wikidata	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25381
Knowledge Graph	https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/m/0pbc