The ancient Germans burned amber as incense, so they called it 'bernstein', or 'burn stone'. During his time, according to the Roman historian Pliny, the price of an amber figurine, no matter how small, exceeded the price of a healthy slave. The Emperor Nero was a great connoisseur of amber. The Romans sent armies to conquer and control amber-producing areas. Homer mentions amber jewellery - earrings and a necklace of amber beads - as a princely gift in the Odyssey.ДЄnother ancient writer, Nicias, said that amber was the juice or essence of the setting sun congealed in the sea and cast up on the shore. The Greeks called amber 'elektron', sun-made, perhaps because of this story, or perhaps because it becomes electrically charged when rubbed with a cloth and can attract small particles. Their tears, dried by the sun, are amber. His mother and sister turned into trees in their grief but still mourned him. To save the earth, Zeus struck Phaethon with a thunderbolt and he died, plunging out of the sky.

Ovid wrote that when Phaethon, a son of Helios, the sun, convinced his father to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun through the heavens for a day, he erred too close to the earth, scorching it. There are many myths surrounding the origin of amber. Between 18, one million kilograms of Baltic amber were produced for jewelry.' It never completely went out of vogue since the Stone Age. 'Amber took on great value and significance to, among others, the Assyrians, Egyptians, Etruscans, Phoenicians and Greeks. 'Stone Age man imbued amber with supernatural properties and used it to wear and to worship,' says Mr Federman.

Amber artefacts dating back to the Stone Age have been found in what is now Germany and Denmark. Other amber sources include Myanmar (formerly Burma), Lebanon, Sicily, Mexico, Romania, Germany, and Canada. Baltic amber is found in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Russia, and occasionally washed up on the shores of the Baltic Sea as far away as Denmark, Norway, and England. The largest mine in the Baltic region is in Russia, west of Kaliningrad. Amber prices can range from $20 to $40,000 or more.ДЇortunately for new amber enthusiasts, amber from the Baltic states is more widely available on the market than it was in previous years thanks to the liberalisation of the economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Amber from the former is older, and thus preferred on the market, but that obtained from the latter is more likely to have insect inclusions. The two main sources of amber on the market today are the Baltic states and the Dominican Republic. More than 1,000 extinct species of insects have been identified in amber.' 'It has helped paleontologists reconstruct life on earth in its primal phases. 'Amber is like a time capsule made and placed in the earth by nature herself,' said David Federman, author of the Consumer Guide to Colored Gemstones. Millions of people learned from the film that amber, which is fossilised pine tree resin, is ancient and valuable, like an antique from history.Дemand is especially strong for amber with insects inside it.

Of course, that was before millions of people saw dinosaur DNA extracted from a mosquito trapped in amber in the film. A more surprising result of the film's popularity has been a worldwide surge in demand for amber jewellery.ДЄlthough amber's use in adornment is probably as old as mankind itself, in recent times it has had a limited market. Dinosaurs have been more popular than ever since their starring role in the film Jurassic Park.

Amethyst gemstone from beirut mine