Amber Vein Project - ecoc-doc-athens

Amber Vein“Amber embodies a paradox. On the one hand, it is an inert rock and a component ofinorganic nature. But on the other hand, amber is a relic of the living past, a piece oforganic matter, and the lifeline of plant life. As a mineral, amber, like all stones, iseternal, quite unlike the transitory elements of human existence. But as a prehistoricplant extract, amber reawakens in our modern-day consciousness a sense of eternalreturn/traditional cycles of reawakening—like the seasons, the path of the sun, andthe spiral of human life, which repeats the same model for generations. Amber has anew symbolic value in the consciousness of today’s identity, aware of traditions thataren’t just dead and gone but, rather, are tangible proof of something indestructiblyalive.” 1Amber Vein“Amber Vein” is a thematic line that will reveal those scientific and culturalachievements that are valuable both as excellent accomplishments and as remarkablecontributions to the global community. This is Riga’s and Latvia’s investment inworld culture and the development of human creativity. As part of the EuropeanCapital of Culture programme, the “New Amber Route” will be a European culturalcooperation network created by the city of Riga, which will unite the cities in theancient amber trade route in a new, interdisciplinary partnership.Why did we choose amber for this thematic section? What’s so special about thisnatural mineral that people living along the Baltic coast have grown so accustomed toin everyday life? Amber is a virgin element that contains the code of evolution.Amber: A “Child of Nature” created under the influence of a climatic ForceMajeure1 Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga. Proceedings of the 4 th International Conference on Amber in Archaeology,Opening address, Talsi, Latvia, 2001//Latvian History Institute Press, Riga, 2003.

Dzintars, the Latvian word for amber, comes from the Latin succinus; the Englishword “amber” stems from the ancient Persian ambare. Amber has been given manyother beautiful names in various languages: in Latvian, dzintars is the “sun stone”; inRussian, alatir is “sea incense”; and in Finnish, Estonian, and Arab, amber is “seastone.” People in various time periods have always believed in the mysterious powersof amber, regardless of what they called it. Amber is usually yellow with variousother subtle colour tones, from yellowish red to yellowish brown. White, green, andblack amber may also be found. Researchers have claimed that amber can come in216 different colours.The first written testimony of amber appeared in Assyrian cuneiform characters, in1000 B.C. The first person to mention the plant origin of amber was the ancientRoman historian Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), who concluded that amber wascomposed of resin that had hardened in the cold. Now most researchers agree that,about 50-60 million years ago, when the Scandinavian Peninsula was attached to theeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, the forests that gave rise to amber grew on the coast ofthe North Sea. At that time, the climate in this region was similar to that of moderndayAfrica, and the subtropical and tropical forests were home mostly to palms,cypresses, oaks, chestnuts, pines, and firs. In these forests, pine trees (pinussuccinifera) secreted a wealth of resin. During storms and other atmosphericdisturbances, this resin ended up in the water, where it hardened and was eventuallycarried south. What we call amber is no longer primordial resin; it is a mineral thathas formed over a long period of time.As the earth’s climate changed and the temperature rose, plants in extreme conditionsbegan to produce more and more succinic acid, which found its way into resin. Moredeveloped organisms tried to use external sources to make up for the deficiencies inthis substance. This is perhaps why many insects were instinctively attracted to liquidwood resin, where they drowned and in which they have been preserved to the presentday.Amber on the scale of valuesThe Romans valued Baltic amber so highly that a piece of amber the size of a child’s

fist was worth more than a healthy young slave. Their predecessors the Villanovansand Etruscans (1200-600 B.C) considered amber more valuable than gold. Andduring the Bronze age, 3,500 years ago, Baltic amber was considered the mainprecious mineral in all Mediterranean civilizations—the Greeks, the Minoans, and theEgyptians. A few examples: When Heinrich Schliemann discovered the ruins of Troyhe also found 10,000 amber beads. In 1922, when Howard Carter found the tomb ofTutankhamen, he had no idea that the dull brown resin in the middle of the golden“heart scarab” (the single most important jewel on the pharaoh’s mummy) was amber,the “sun stone”, as was the necklace in his casket. In the Old Testament, KingSolomon’s ring was made of amber, and Baltic amber beads have been found inarchaeological sites in the Near East dating from 3500 and 4200 B.C. 2Healing propertiesThe Ancient Egyptians knew that amber had unique healing powers. In AncientEgypt, resin was an ingredient in embalming substances. The Egyptians also prepareda drink from amber ground into powder, which they then mixed with wine and honeyand used to strengthen the heart and other organs.Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) wrote that Italian women wore amber around their necks,to protect against an enlarged thyroid gland and other throat diseases. These so-called“health necklaces”—uncut amber threaded on a linen thread—are still worn today bywomen in the Baltic States. In Belarus, amber was used to treat insomnia; pieces ofuncut amber were placed beneath the pillow or hung at the head of the bed. To thisday, amber spirit extract is used to treat and prevent colds, various heart conditions,and circulation problems.The transformation of amber in new scientific discoveriesAmber has its own DNA. By analyzing the chemical components and radioactivecarbon data of a piece of amber, scientists can determine whether the amber comesfrom the Baltic coast or other locations. Scientists call amber from the Baltic regionsuccinites.2 Dr. Māra Kalniņš. Letter to the Riga application working group/2009

Inga Ļašenko, a researcher at the Biomaterial and Biomechanics Institute at RigaTechnical University, is the most outstanding specialist in modern “amber science”well beyond Riga and Latvia’s borders. She has won two prestigious awards: a GoldMedal for Innovation and a Gold Medal for Science from the World IntellectualProperty Organization. These medals prove the importance of I. Ļašenko’s work inthe development of new innovations and confirm its great practical significance. Thescientist conducts experiments in the construction of amber blood vessels, which maysomeday be used in heart and blood vessel surgery. At the Egyptian National Libraryin Cairo, I. Ļašenko discovered a manuscript that tells of Egyptian efforts to makeblood vessels from amber, two thousands years ago. I. Ļašenko’s first discoveriesshow that an amber electron donor with a negative electric charge considerablylessens the formation of thrombi in blood vessels, which is the problem withtraditional implants. She has also created composite amber threads that can be usedboth for medical purposes and for textile products. Likewise, Professor Ļašenko hasdeveloped a line of amber-based natural cosmetics, which provide surprising effects.The eternal art of amberFor centuries, amber has served both as an object of beauty and proof of one’s socialstatus: the more ornate the amber decorations on a person’s clothing and jewellery,the more influential he or she was in society. At the end of the Stone Age, peoplemost often used amber to make necklaces; this is confirmed by archaeologicaldiscoveries on the Baltic coast, in Scandinavia, and in a few regions of Ukraine. Inthe late Stone Age, amber was carried farther into Europe, where the craft of amberprocessing was established—the practice of cutting, boring, and polishing. Duringthis time amber was also brought into Egypt, where it was used to make jewellery andother cult objects.Latvian scientists have unearthed world-class archaeological discoveries at themarshes of Lake Lubāna, in the eastern part of Latvia, where amber workshops werein operation more than three thousand years before our era. Thanks to internationallyrecognized archaeological research by Latvian scientist Ilze Loze, the mid-Neolithicamber workshop in the Lake Lubāna marshes of Eastern Latvia, discovered in 1960

and studied until the early nineties, has given us the oldest amber necklaces found inEurope.Among the many other valuable artifacts found at Lake Lubāna, archaeologists alsodiscovered a necklace typical of Afghanistan and Egypt from the period 5,000-3,000B.C. Another necklace, found in nearby Zvidze, is incomparably older than thejewellery of the Egyptian Old Kingdom period and the artifacts found among thestrings of necklaces in the Sumerian royal family’s tomb in Ur. The Afghan-stylenecklace was made of alabaster, and the Zvidze necklace was made of gold andorange cornelian. For purposes of comparison, the Egyptian Old Kingdom periodlasted from 2650-2300 B.C, and the Zvidze necklace dates from 3611-3523 B.C.Another unique feature of the more than 4,000-year-old amber workshops at LakeLubāna is the amber crafting “innovations” and advanced technological methodsemployed by the people of that time. Spherical amber necklaces, which are only onemillimetre short of ideal globular form, have turned out to be unexpectedly ancient.The ancient amber practitioners of the Lake Lubāna marshes were not only craftsmen,they also introduced new technologies. In the late Neolithic period they perfectedtheir techniques and introduced special amber jewellery, including circular pendantsalso characteristic of European south-eastern territories, made of gold, silver, orcopper with a stem-like top for boring special holes (“stemmed rings,” to use MarijaGimbutas’s phrase). The latter were also characteristic of the ancient VarnaNecropolis on the coast of the Black Sea in Bulgaria, which is filled with goldenaccessories and which is still considered older than most ancient burial places inEgypt or Mesopotamia.Button-like amber necklaces were introduced by the craftsmen at the amber centre inSambia 3 and could have initially only appeared in Europe as a result of bartering.They are not characteristic of Western or even Central Europe.3 Sambia (Semba, in Lithuanian, or Samland, in German), also known as the Sambian Peninsula, was aPrussian territory on the peninsula between the Curonian Lagoon, the Baltic Sea, and the PrussianLagoon (now the Vistula Lagoon). Due to its wealth of amber and favorable geographical position,Sambia was the first Prussian territory to become known to Western traders (Mugurēvičs, 1995, pp.24–27).

Today, amber necklaces and other art objects are still crafted not only by Riga’scraftsmen and women, but also those living elsewhere along the Baltic coast. In turn,the Polimoda School of the Versace fashion house has expressed an interest in IngaĻašenko’s amber threads.History of the Amber RouteHistorians refer to the Amber Route as belonging to the “highest league” of ancientEuropean trade routes, to borrow a term from the world of sports. Amber is mentionedas a valuable currency in written sources dating back to the Stone and Bronze Ages.More ancient proof of the existence of the Amber Route may be found in texts fromthe era of the Roman Empire and, later, from Christian Rome. During this time, theruling powers documented evidence of their period and their achievements in variousfields, including the significance and impact of trade routes on the life of powerfulRomans and ordinary citizens.One of the most fascinating quotations about the “top five” in the Roman trade route’s“highest league” comes from a geographic analysis by C. R. Beazley. Though his textseems like a very simplified description of the era, when compared withcontemporary geographic studies, the citation nevertheless reveals the range of thetrade route and the place therein occupied by the Baltics: “What were the trade routesin the Roman world when that world became Christian? What routes did ChristianRome inherit from pre-Christian times? These roads existed unchanged through theentire early Middle Ages, but were, of course, overseen by different nations. For themost part, these routes went from east to west or from west to east. There weren’tmany trading opportunities to the north, beyond the Elba and Carpathian Mountains,or to the south, beyond the Saharan and Arabian deserts, except for two exceptions:amber trading on the Baltic coast, and the trading of gold, elephant bone, and slaveson the coast of Zanzibar, on the other side of Cape Guardafui. These routes movedlike enormous mountain ranges, or geographic latitudinal lines, across the OldWorld.” 44 Beazley, C.R.. The Dawn of Modern Geography, vol. 1, p. 178 (London, 1897).

This information is further confirmed by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who wrote: “The newdiscovery of the Silk Route up to the Stone Tower in Tashkurgan, after EmperorTrajan’s war campaign in the direction of the Tigris River, and Julian’s dispatching ofa noble agent to Baltic shores…can be listed among the highest achievements inRoman commerce.” 5Cambridge University Professor Mara Kalnins, author of Ancient Amber Routes:From Riga to Byzantium, emphasizes that “Riga, with its New Amber Routecooperation proposition has two very strong arguments:1) The Geographical Argument:Since the end of the last Ice Age, the Gulf of Riga has been the starting point for anamber trading network that spanned the entire European continent and beyond. Allcultures, civilizations, peoples desired the “sun-stone” and the amber trade could beseen (quite legitimately) as the first example of a pan-European market, a kind ofEuropean Union (only the trade in flint occurs earlier in human history).2) The Temporal Argument:Firstly, there is the documented importance of amber in historical times from the 13 thcentury, when the Teutonic Knights secured a monopoly on the substance (which wasso valuable that the revenues from amber paid for the entire annual costs of the Order)to the great Medieval and Renaissance amber guilds which created wonders for thecourts of princes and kings, popes and bishops, to modern times (e.g., the fabulous“Amber Room” of Peter the Great and, in our own time, the wonderful Amber Altarin Gdansk, being made by Mariusz Drapikowski, which when completed will be thelargest amber artifact ever created, larger even than the “Amber Room”).Secondly, it is the story of Baltic amber in pre-history. (We already mentioned thegreat value that the Romans saw in amber and the jewel status it possessed in Greek,Minoan and Egyptian civilizations).Amber was, if anything, even more important in the Stone Age, to which research onamber workshops in Eastern Latvia, in the surroundings of Lake Lubāna, testifies.5 Sir Wheeler M. Rome beyond the Imperial Frontiers. London, 1954, p. 155.

These workshops were the crossroads between the western amber sources and theeastern (Moscow river basin) lands which produced flint 6 ”.Amber Vein - programmeExpedition in search of the New Amber Route 7After considering Riga’s possible contributions, as European Capital of Culture,to the contemporary European cultural communication network, we have chosento follow the historic Amber Route, uniting Northern and Southern Europe andtransgressing the traditional boundaries that we call Europe. Much has beenwritten about the role of Riga in various time periods as a member of theWestern-Eastern route, but the role of Riga and the rest of Latvia in theimplementation of the Northern-Southern axis has been forgotten, and continuesto be shrouded in mystery.In Riga’s application to the European Capital of Culture Project for 2014, the modernAmber Route signifies a new cultural cooperation network between European citieslocated on a Northern-Southern axis. This was inspired by the ancient Amber Routeand the significance of amber in various cultures and fields of life. However, the newAmber Route encompasses more than just amber. Its central goal is to bring about anew contribution to the network of human and cultural connections, within theframework of the aforementioned geographic axis.The creation/renewal process of this cooperation network is an expedition that willattempt to disclose the secrets, keys, and essence of the modern Amber Route,bringing together people from various cultural, scientific, and business fields, so that6 Dr. Mara Kalnins. Letter to the Riga application working group, 2009.7 The working group based its studies of the Amber Route on research by Latvian and internationalhistorians. Of particular assistance were the studies published by the International Conference onAmber in Archaeology, in Talsi, Latvia, in 2001, and the highly acclaimed book Ancient Amber Routesand the Geographic Discovery of the Eastern Baltics (Zelta ābele: Stockholm, 1962), by ProfessorArnolds Spekke. We would like to express our gratitude to Ilze Loze, of the Latvian History Institute,and Dr. Mara Kalnins, professor at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, for their generoussupport.

they may learn together and transfer acquired information/experience to theiractivities. The expedition is the main project in this thematic line; it unitesrepresentatives from various fields in a single team, which will visit the cities of theancient Amber Route. This sharing of experience and knowledge will lead to an actof cohesion, surprising those involved and contributing to the creation of newachievements and cultural events.Pliny once wrote about a Roman nobleman (eques), who was sent by the patricianJulian to Prussian shores in order to bring back large amounts of amber. Scholarshave argued about whether this Roman nobleman travelled to Prussia simply to bringback amber, or whether he also went there to discuss the introduction of a unifiedcustoms duty, which would lessen the many customs duties imposed over the courseof the long journey. 8 Riga’s New Amber Route partnership project is an attempt tobreak down the boundaries erected by stereotypes (the “typical” Northerner, or the“typical” Southerner), and to bring together people from various spheres for newcultural experiences and events. The project also aims to create, through new culturalnetworks, a type of modern cultural “currency”: high-quality partnership projects,which are marked by excellence and the ability to fascinate the minds of many andimprove the quality of life.Cities in the New Amber Route cooperation network 9Cities in the Northern-Western-Southern Amber Route partnership:Riga — Liepaja — Klaipeda — Kaliningrad (Königsberg) — Gdansk — Lübeck —Bruges — Vienna —Aquileia in the province of Venice—Rome — Athens.Waterways: Baltic Sea, Vistula — Morava — Danube; Elbe — Rhine — Rhone.Cities in the Northern-Eastern-Southern Amber Route partnership:8 Spekke, Arnolds. Ancient amber routes and the geographic discovery of the Eastern Baltic.Stockholm, 1962. p. 58.9 Other cities may become involved over the course of the project.

Riga — Rēzekne (in association with the nearby Lake Lubāna marshes) —Daugavpils — Sevastopol (formerly Chersonesus) — Istanbul.Waterways: Daugava—Dnieper—Black Sea.Different fields in the New Amber Route cooperation network / expeditionCulture — Inspired by the many uses of amber in various cultures throughouthistory, the New Amber Route opens up the opportunity for projects in and betweenvarious cultural sectors, including, but certainly not limited to, the fields of art,fashion, design, music, textile art, archaeology, literature, and philosophy.Business — The Amber Route, as has been mentioned several times, ensured thelifeline for commercial transactions in various time periods, throughout the Europeancontinent. The New Amber Route offers to collaborate in the process of sharingeconomic knowledge and supporting creative industries.Science and medicine — Scientists have confirmed the healing properties of thisvaluable mineral. Artwork and cultural experiences inspired by physics are currentlyvery actual in the world of art and multimedia. In this context, the relationshipbetween culture, medicine, and chemistry has a future, especially taking into accountsociety’s growing interest in “eternal youth” and other matters related to publichealth.Climate Change — The conditions that brought about the creation of amber highlightthe importance of climate change. It seems as if the relationship between culture andclimate change could heat up, as global discussion and activity regarding climatechange and environmental issues in the twenty-first century continue to grow.Person to Person — This dimension of the New Amber Route provides for closercontact between individuals. It also foresees the eradication of superficial impressionsand erroneous stereotypes about people in the northern and southern parts of thecontinent. The results of other projects in the afore-mentioned fields reach theirculmination, their “day in the limelight,” by involving a wide range of people from

local society. This perspective reflects, in modern form, the people by the Baltic Seadescribed in ancient Roman texts, as well their unique customs and rituals.Schedule for the New Amber Route cooperation network2009–2010 — Research of possible cooperation projects and initial contact withcities.2011 — Basic development of projects; reinforcement of direct contacts with peopleinvolved in projects; budget approval.2012–2013 — Project development and finalization.2014 — Project implementation, within the framework of the European Capital ofCulture programme, in Riga and other cities involved in the New Amber Routeproject; exploration of future possibilities for the project; contact with upcoming ECCcities.