Amber and the Komboloi Tradition

Exploring the Science and Mindfulness Behind the Practice

- HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

Amber is an organic material, a plant resin originating from coniferous trees, which lived between 320 and 60 million years ago. The oldest recovered amber dates to the Upper Carboniferous period, 320 million years ago (www.mindat.org). Over thousands of years, the soft resin became a hard, fossilized resin, and the molecules have polymerized. The conditions of heat, pressure, oxygen and light exposure must be right for the amber to form. Its chemical composition is approximately C 10 H16 O. Amber’s structure is non-crystalline. It may show flow lines, and often have inclusions of exquisitely preserved organisms, such as insects, spiders, frogs and lizards, bird feathers, bones, and plant materials, which were trapped in the tree’s resin.

Amber is found in several places worldwide, but amber from northern Europe collected around the Baltic Sea shores is considered the best quality. Amber is found on the west coast of Koenigsberg in Prussia, which became Kaliningrad of Russia. Amber is also found in Burma, Sicily, Central Europe, Romania, Mexico, Canada, several US locations, and the Dominican Republic (Amber, The Golden Gem of the Ages, Patty C. Rice, 1980). Baltic amber has a distinct “fingerprint” inclusion - plant hairs (stellate trichomes) - not found in the Dominican amber. Although ambers from different countries are equally labeled “amber,” there are differences between the materials based on their age, tree origin, and chemical composition, all of which reflect on the quality.