Riga - European Capital of Culture 2014 candidate

Latvian scientists have unearthed world-class archaeologicaldiscoveries at the marshes of Lake Lubāna, in the eastern partof Latvia, where amber workshops were in operation more thanthree thousand years before our era. Thanks to internationally recognizedarchaeological research by Latvian scientist Ilze Loze,the mid-Neolithic amber workshop in the Lake Lubāna marshesof Eastern Latvia, discovered in 1960 and studied until the earlynineties, has given us the oldest amber necklaces found inEurope.Among the many other valuable artifacts found at Lake Lubāna,archaeologists also discovered a necklace typical of Afghanistanand Egypt from the period 5,000–3,000 B.C. Another necklace,found in nearby Zvidze, is incomparably older than the jewelleryof the Egyptian Old Kingdom period and the artifacts foundamong the strings of necklaces in the Sumerian royal family’stomb in Ur. The Afghan-style necklace was made of alabaster,and the Zvidze necklace was made of gold and orange cornelian.For purposes of comparison, the Egyptian Old Kingdom periodlasted from 2650–2300 B.C. and the Zvidze necklace dates from3611–3523 B.C. Another unique feature of the more than 4,000-year-old amber workshops at Lake Lubāna is the amber crafting‘innovations’ and advanced technological methods employedby the people of that time. Spherical amber necklaces, whichare only one millimetre short of ideal globular form, have turnedout to be unexpectedly ancient. The ancient amber practitionersof the Lake Lubāna marshes were not only craftsmen, they alsointroduced new technologies. In the late Neolithic period theyperfected their techniques and introduced special amber jewellery,including circular pendants also characteristic of Europeansouth-eastern territories, made of gold, silver, or copper with astem-like top for boring special holes (‘stemmed rings’, to useMarija Gimbutas’s phrase). The latter were also characteristic ofthe ancient Varna Necropolis on the coast of the Black Sea inBulgaria, which is filled with golden accessories and which isstill considered older than most ancient burial places in Egyptor Mesopotamia.Button-like amber necklaces were introduced by the craftsmenat the amber centre in Sambia 3 and could have initially only appearedin Europe as a result of bartering. They are not characteristicof Western or even Central Europe.Today, amber necklaces and other art objects are still craftednot only by Riga’s craftsmen and women, but also those livingelsewhere along the Baltic coast. In turn, the Polimoda Schoolof 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 ‘highestleague’ of ancient European trade routes, to borrow a term fromthe world of sports. Amber is mentioned as a valuable currency inwritten sources dating back to the Stone and Bronze Ages. Moreancient proof of the existence of the Amber Route may be found intexts from the era of the Roman Empire and, later, from ChristianRome. During this time, the ruling powers documented evidenceof their period and their achievements in various fields, includingthe 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 theRoman trade route’s ‘highest league’ comes from a geographicanalysis by C. R. Beazley. Though his text seems like a very simplifieddescription of the era, when compared with contemporarygeographic studies, the citation nevertheless reveals the rangeof the trade route and the place therein occupied by the Baltics:‘What were the trade routes in the Roman world when that worldbecame Christian? What routes did Christian Rome inherit frompre-Christian times? These roads existed unchanged through theentire early Middle Ages, but were, of course, overseen by differentnations. For the most part, these routes went from east towest or from west to east. There weren’t many trading opportunitiesto the north, beyond the Elba and Carpathian Mountains, orto the south, beyond the Saharan and Arabian deserts, except fortwo exceptions: amber trading on the Baltic coast, and the tradingof gold, elephant bone, and slaves on the coast of Zanzibar, onthe other side of Cape Guardafui. These routes moved like enormousmountain ranges, or geographic latitudinal lines, across theOld World.’ 4This information is further confirmed by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, whowrote: ‘The new discovery of the Silk Route up to the Stone Towerin Tashkurgan, after Emperor Trajan’s war campaign in the directionof the Tigris River, and Julian’s dispatching of a noble agentto Baltic shores…can be listed among the highest achievementsin Roman commerce.’ 5Cambridge University Professor, Māra Kalniņš, author of “AncientAmber Routes”: From Riga to Byzantium, emphasizes that ‘Riga,with its New Amber Route cooperation proposition has two verystrong arguments:1 The Geographical Argument:Since the end of the last Ice Age, the Gulf of Riga has been thestarting point for an amber trading network that spanned theentire European continent and beyond. All cultures, civilizations,peoples desired the ‘sun-stone’ and the amber trade could beseen (quite legitimately) as the first example of a pan-Europeanmarket, a kind of European Union (only the trade in flint occursearlier in human history).2 The Temporal Argument:Firstly, there is the documented importance of amber in historicaltimes from the 13 th century, when the Teutonic Knights secured amonopoly on the substance (which was so valuable that the revenuesfrom amber paid for the entire annual costs of the Order) tothe great Medieval and Renaissance amber guilds which createdwonders for the courts of princes and kings, popes and bishops,to modern times (e.g., the fabulous “Amber Room” of Peter the1Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga. Proceedings of the 4 th International Conference on Amberin Archaeology, Opening address, Talsi, Latvia, 2001//Latvian History InstitutePress, Riga, 2003.2Dr. Māra Kalniņš. Letter to the Riga application task group/20093Sambia (Semba, in Lithuanian, or Samland, in German), also known as theSambian Peninsula, was a Prussian territory on the peninsula between theCuronian Lagoon, the Baltic Sea, and the Prussian Lagoon (now the VistulaLagoon). Due to its wealth of amber and favorable geographical position, Sambiawas the first Prussian territory to become known to Western traders (Mugurēvičs,1995, pp. 24–27).4Beazley, C.R.. The Dawn of Modern Geography, vol. 1, p. 178 (London, 1897).5Sir Wheeler M. Rome beyond the Imperial Frontiers. London, 1954, p. 155.6Dr. Māra Kalniņš. Letter to the Riga application working group, 2009.Great and, in our own time, the wonderful Amber Altar in Gdansk,being made by Mariusz Drapikowski, which when completed willbe the largest amber artifact ever created, larger even than the“Amber Room”).Secondly, it is the story of Baltic amber in pre-history. (We alreadymentioned the great value that the Romans saw in amber and thejewel status it possessed in Greek, Minoan and Egyptian civilizations).Amber was, if anything, even more important in the StoneAge, to which research on amber workshops in Eastern Latvia,in the surroundings of Lake Lubāna, testifies. These workshopswere the crossroads between the western amber sources and theeastern (Moscow river basin) lands which produced flint 6 ”.108 109