Amber: healing and protective properties, how to spot a fake. The healing properties of amber

Amber is the fossilized resin of coniferous trees. Over a long period of time, complex processes took place during its hardening, as a result of which the resin turned into amber.

Many of us have heard about the miraculous properties of amber. This solar stone has served as a talisman, decoration and medicine since ancient times. He treated, comforted and protected his owner.

Nowadays, amber is loved and appreciated, but rarely worn. Therefore, I would like to draw your attention to this wonderful stone. Products with it are sold throughout the country and abroad. Low prices can only be found where amber is mined and processed. For example, in the Kaliningrad region. In local factories and salons you can buy both cheap and expensive (highly artistic) amber products. Unfortunately, in local markets and in numerous street stalls it is easy to run into fakes. True, much more natural amber is sold.

The healing properties of amber

Avicenna considered amber a medicine that could cure many diseases. Unpolished (unprocessed) amber is considered to be the most beneficial for health. Even doctors recommend wearing beads made of raw amber to those people who have problems related to the thyroid gland. This amber is useful for lung patients and heart patients.

In the Kaliningrad region you can buy very inexpensive small pieces and chips of amber, which are sold in small bags or jars. They are bought to make compresses with them. To do this, amber is heated, poured into a fabric bag and placed on the sore joint. Powder made from pieces of amber ground into dust is also sold. Compresses are also made with it. All pharmacies have wonderful amber ointment, succinic acid and other amber products that are good for health. For example, a belt with thin plates of amber, which helps with radiculitis and problems with sore knees.

Natural amber, in contact with the skin, saturates it with succinic acid (a non-specific biostimulant) and its salts. This warm stone, a complex combination of organic compounds, contains chemical elements that are beneficial to the body. Their number and variety depend on the deposit. It has been noticed that amber enhances restoration processes in the body. Stimulates the nervous system and relieves depression.

Amber amulets have always been considered very strong, capable of preventing troubles and rewarding a person with vigor and health. Many believe that amber sharpens intuition and charges with optimism.

There are so many stories and legends associated with amber that it is difficult to figure out what is truth and what is fiction. Are there really pieces of amber in which spirits live? The Lithuanian name for amber (“gintaras”) means protection. In Rus', amber was called sea incense.

Yaroslav the Wise always had with him an unprocessed piece of amber, which he kept on his solar plexus. A necklace made of raw amber was worn by nurses. It was believed that this would make babies healthy and calm. French noble ladies often appeared at court wearing amber with flies. Amber is still kept near the bed or under the pillow to protect during sleep. They also put it in babies' cribs to protect them from the evil eye.

Amber deposits

Individual pieces of amber are found in the Far East, Alaska, Canada and other regions. Another thing is amber placers, which are of industrial importance. There are not so many large deposits.

There are amber deposits not only in our country. I saw in Chinese jewelry stores and in expensive stores, amber comes from Poland. There are Ukrainian and German deposits. Amber is mined in smaller quantities in Denmark and southern Sweden. Brown amber from Burma (burmite) is decorated not only with veins of calcite, but also with many insects. This is the hardest amber. Sicilian amber is usually dark, often the color of burnt sugar. Romanian amber has many cracks that are hidden by polishing. It is also often dark, almost black. In Africa and New Zealand, young resin (copal) is found, which only after millions of years in the ground will become amber.

Lithuanian amber, gintaras, is famous. Baltic amber is of very high quality. It contains a lot of succinic acid. Our most famous is amber, which is mined near Kaliningrad.

The Baltic Sea washes up more or less large pieces of amber on the shore. There is even such a thing as “amber storms”. In former times, after them, amber was collected on the shore in such huge quantities that it was used as... fuel. This explains the German name for amber - “flammable stone”.

At all times, amber was mined by divers. I saw people with masks near Kaliningrad who were looking for larger pieces of amber at the bottom. There was even one scuba diver. Nowadays, this method can be classified as entertainment. For a long time, the most effective option for extracting amber was the development of coastal amber beds. Before World War II, the quarry method became popular, in which deposits were mined at depths of up to 30 meters.

Nowadays, amber is retrieved from a depth of 40 meters. There is a huge quarry in the village of Yantarny. It is said that this deposit accounts for more than 90% of the world's amber production. Near the deposit there is the famous Amber Combine.

Quarry in Yantarny, Kaliningrad region

How to avoid running into a fake?

Natural amber is not only honey-yellow, but also reddish-brown, milky-white (“bone”) or with a slight bluish tint (very rarely). I have beads made of raw amber that are almost black in color. I bought them in Svetlogorsk (Kaliningrad region). If you rub amber on fur or a woolen cloth, it quickly becomes electrified.

These signs are not distinctive. It is difficult to recognize fakes from them, i.e. imitation of natural amber. The most popular fakes are “amber” made from some synthetic materials (can even become electrified when rubbed), from casein plastics (not electrified when rubbed) and pressed amber chips (ambroid).

Pressed amber appeared not in our time, but at the end of the 19th century. When making it, amber chips are first melted and then immediately pressed. It is more difficult to identify such unnatural amber, since ambroid retains many of the properties of amber. Connoisseurs recognize it with the naked eye by such signs as elongated air bubbles and clear lines of junctions of transparent and matte parts.

There are inclusions in amber: air bubbles, plant remains, insects, etc. In natural amber, air bubbles have a smooth spherical shape, rather than an elongated one. Insects that are immured in artificial amber are usually “more careful”, since by the time the fake was made they were already dead, and did not try with all their might to get out of the resin trap.

Often used very in a simple way definitions of counterfeit. In a solution of ordinary salt (10 teaspoons per glass of water), synthetic “amber” sinks, while natural and pressed ones end up on the surface of the water.

Sometimes you have to resort to a more barbaric method. For this sharp knife scraping a piece of amber. Synthetic amber produces shavings, and natural amber, pressed and dug, produces crumbs.

At a temperature of 180°C, amber burns and “smells divinely.” Soft copal (unripe resin) melts more easily, also releasing a pleasant resinous aroma. Synthetic analogues of amber either burn instantly or become charred. In order to check the authenticity, a small amount of powder or shavings is enough.

When buying amber, you need to hold it in your hand. The natural one will immediately seem warm, while the synthetic one will warm up gradually. Glass “amber” will remain cold and lifeless longer.

Tick ​​was in pain. He woke up from this pain. That is, not that he woke up, but... What?..

Tick ​​sat up, rubbed his aching ankle, and looked around. All around, right up to the horizon, it was empty. Completely empty. Absolutely! The gaze slid across the smooth dark gray plain, like a puck on ice. Only there was clearly no ice here. Tik plunged his palm into the soft, powdery gray dust, scooped it up and raised his hand. But a strange gray powder flowed out of the handful like water.

What's going on?.. Tick even forgot about the pain. He again scooped up the capricious dust - now more, into both palms, and managed to hold it a little while he brought it closer to his eyes.

The dust really looked like water - it was slippery to the touch, as if wet, and the surface of the scooped up handful was leveled out, like a puddle. And yet it was not water.

Tick ​​unclenched his palms and wanted to shake them off, but they turned out to be completely clean. Well, okay, so much the better. But what next?

He tried to get up, but his bad leg slipped on that stupid dust. The slipper slid into the distance like a scooter, and Tick slammed his butt back to its original place. He even cried from frustration and pain. Not out loud, of course, but a couple of tears soaked away the harmful dust. However, this was enough to make Tik angry. Not for the dust, of course, but for yourself. Soon it will be twelve, and he started crying like a girl! You need to pull yourself together, as he liked to say... Who?.. Tick thought. "Get a hold of yourself!" - these words, this voice seemed to be ringing in my ears even now. But whose voice was it? Who said these words?.. Tick did not remember this. Moreover, he suddenly realized with surprise that he didn’t remember anything at all!

No, he remembered that his name was Tik. Not even exactly Tick, but Kostya, Kostya. Tick ​​was precisely what the one who... who owned that familiar voice called him. And someone else called him Tik... No, I can’t remember. But how can this be? After all, where did he come from here, in this gray desert! Well, from somewhere he knows about the desert, and that he is eleven years old... That is, almost twelve.

Be that as it may, something had to be done. Go somewhere. I wonder where? Tick ​​looked around again and again, except for the gray plain that was the same on all sides, he saw nothing. It doesn’t matter where, he decided. Don't sit here for the rest of your life.

But then he again remembered about his sore leg. It was slightly swollen around the ankle and turned red. Walking anywhere was definitely a problem. But Tick had already worked himself up and was not going to give in to difficulties. First, he got down on all fours and crawled to the flying slipper. I turned it over in my hands, but decided not to put it on. The dust was already terribly slippery, and in flip-flops and with a bad leg, he would definitely feel like a cow on ice. If only he were wearing sneakers!..

At first Tick thought that someone grabbed his legs. He yelped and turned around sharply. There was no one behind. But his feet!.. They were wearing white new sneakers, exactly the ones he had once dreamed of. Moreover, on top of one sneaker, on his good leg, he was also wearing a flip-flop.

Tick ​​shook off the unnecessary slipper from his foot and thought about it. Something very strange was happening. Firstly, he doesn’t remember anything about himself except his name and age. Secondly, this desert is clearly not the place where he lived before. Thirdly, it’s unclear where the sneakers came from. Although... He doesn’t remember anything; Perhaps, in fact, it is quite common when what you think about immediately appears! Come on... What can you come up with?.. Maybe some kind of crutch so as not to step on your sore leg?

Before he had time to imagine this very crutch, it had already smacked him on the top of his head. Tick ​​squealed again and rubbed the bruised area. “So I’ll completely hurt myself,” he muttered. “You have to think before you do anything...” By the way, these were also the words of that... well, the one who said that you need to pull yourself together. By the way, good advice. It's a pity that I didn't remember it right away. Especially the second one. Tick ​​rubbed the top of his head again and looked warily at the sky. Actually, there was no sky above. It was just light there. Well, that is, in words Tick simply could not explain what he saw above him. Because he didn't see anything there. This made him feel unpleasant and even slightly creepy, and Tick hastened to lower his head. The dark gray dust around him seemed almost familiar to him.

Tick ​​picked up the ill-fated crutch. Frankly speaking, he really didn’t like crutches. Basically. He seemed to see something gloomy, angry, and, most importantly, hopeless and hopeless in them. “And what happened to my leg? - Tick sighed sadly, twirling the crutch in his hands. “I wish she could be cured suddenly like that!”

Tick ​​immediately felt that his leg stopped hurting. The unnecessary crutch flew to the side. Tick ​​jumped up, but slipped again and barely managed to stay on his feet. But his mood soared like festive fireworks. Of course, because of his leg, but mainly because of the opportunities opening up to him.

Wow! - he yelled. - Oh-ho-ho! I am a magician! I can do everything!

“What, what, what could I ask?..” - Tick began to think feverishly. And then a wonderful idea came into his head.

I want to remember who I am and where I came from here! - he shouted straight into the absent sky.

He even closed his eyes - both from the horror emanating from this bright “nothing”, and from the anticipation of a stream of memories. But nothing happened. He still remembered only that he was Tik, and that he would soon turn twelve years old. Good mood it immediately disappeared.

While talking to a poor swineherd named Eumaeus, Odysseus asked him to tell his story. And he said: he was not a swineherd, but a royal son, originally from the island of Sira, “which is not populated with many people, but is convenient for life,” and he was stolen and sold into slavery by merchants from distant Phenicia.

Somehow their ship landed on the island, and the prince’s nanny, a Phoenician slave, decided to flee with the merchants to her homeland. And “... when their loaded ship was ready to set off, they sent a messenger to the Phoenician slave... He brought a necklace to my father’s house for display: a large electron set in gold with wonderful art.” Electron - a processed piece of amber - captured the attention of the royal court, and the Phoenician slave, taking Eumaeus and a couple of golden jugs, fled to the ship.

What attracted you to amber?
A warm stone of amazing beauty, sometimes containing strange small insects inside itself, had one unusual property that was conducive to philosophical constructions - it could attract! It attracted dust particles, threads, pieces of papyrus. And it was precisely this property that determined the names of amber in ancient times. different nations. So, the Greeks called it an electron - attracting; the Romans - harpaxom, which means a robber, and the Persians - kavuboi, that is, a stone capable of attracting chaff.

They say that this property of amber was discovered by the daughter of Thales of Miletus. Hardly! It was apparently known even earlier and everywhere. Thus, A. Humboldt, who visited the Indians in the Orinoco River basin untouched by civilization at the end of the last century, could be convinced that they knew the properties of amber. The amber spindle of the fair-haired woman is just a beautiful ancient fairy tale.

Fairy tales are fairy tales, and meticulous historians can now confidently say what benefits our ancient and not so ancient ancestors derived from the fossilized million-year-old resin: amber was considered an effective medicine, a cosmetic product. Amber necklaces and amber rosaries are protection from the evil eye, from misfortune, from disease. Apparently, this is why images of nursing madonnas with amber necklaces are so common in the paintings of old Flemings.

Interestingly, the Arabic name for the electric stingray is “raad”, which means “lightning”. This is hardly accidental. It is hardly accidental that the name Electra in Euripides and Homer was given to a woman with an ardent, “lightning-fast” character. And the connection between the words “electron” - amber and the name Electra is undeniable.

Where does amber come from? What is he? Are these not the tears of Phaethon’s sisters – the beautiful Heliades? The hot-tempered son of the Sun god Helios and the Oceanid Klymene Phaethon decided to prove to his doubting sisters that he is a true god. He begged his father for a sun chariot and raced across the sky on it. But the fiery horses did not listen, immortal like gods, the horses rushed... Phaeton watched with horror as they flew, and the world shook, seeing its imminent fiery death. Helios saw this, frowned, Zeus the Thunderer saw this, threw a terrible lightning at the unfortunate brave man, killed him and thereby saved the world. From grief, Phaeton’s beautiful sisters Heliad froze like slender poplar trees, and their maiden tears froze like amber clusters.

This is how amber was used, a useful and mysterious stone, known for thousands of years...

Source: from the book by V. Kartsev "Adventures of Great Equations"

Did you know?

Amber is a fossilized resin, which is called both “tears of the sea” and “gifts of the sun.”
This amber is an interesting stone!

There are about three hundred varieties of amber: transparent and opaque, from waxy yellow to brown and even black. In the jewelry industry, amber is subjected to various treatments, including clarification, heating, chemical treatment, and dyeing. All these actions change the color and properties of amber.

So, to give transparent amber a sparkling texture, heat is used. The smallest air bubbles present in amber burst when heated and form sparkling lenses, disks or scales. When amber is heated to a temperature of 100-250 oC, the color of the transparent stone changes; at the beginning of heating, the amber becomes cloudy, then from light yellow it becomes darker - cherry. In the old days, to give the necessary purity and shade, amber was heated in fine sand or salt, kept in an oven, or boiled in honey, oil or fat.

When heated, the pieces of amber first soften and then melt. Amber boils quietly, releasing vapors with an aromatic odor. In the Middle Ages, amber was used for incense in temples and churches. IN ancient Rus' Amber was therefore called “sea incense.”

Amber can be clarified, previously this was done in linseed and rapeseed oil, and painted in various colors. When boiled, the bubbles in the amber were filled with fat and acquired the ability to transmit light. Even in the last century, glasses, prisms, magnifying and burning glasses were made from enlightened amber, with the help of which gunpowder flared up faster than from glass lenses. After clearing, semicircular cracks often appear in amber, appearance reminiscent fish scales. Amber processing craftsmen call such cracks that sparkle with “gold” “sun rays.”

The ancient Romans knew how to color amber red. Using the root of Anchusa tinctoria, sea purple and goat fat, they gave the amber the appearance gemstone and valued it as worth its weight in gold

Amber processing usually includes: peeling, cutting, shaping, grinding and polishing. Before you start processing stone, study it carefully. First of all, you should choose transparent stones. To see how the material will look in finished work, cut thin slices from both sides of the stone. After sanding them with sandpaper, look carefully at the light. Transparent stones smoother, and cloudy - with a more wavy texture. Having decided what the amber will be used for, you can begin processing.

Raw amber

Amber is not a capricious material; it can be easily processed at home without the use of professional tools. The density of amber is so low that it does not sink in sea ​​water. Due to its low density, amber is very easy to process.
Primary processing

The first stage of processing is peeling.

This process is carried out using coarse sandpaper, an electric sharpener or a regular file. As a result of weathering, a patina crust forms on the surface of amber; this is what needs to be removed before continuing to work with the stone at home. Start this process from the transparent side. The amber dust formed during the process should not be thoughtlessly thrown away; when enough of it has accumulated, varnish can be made.

The workpiece must be given the shape you have in mind. This stage is called amber molding. Using the same tools, give the stone the required shape or silhouette, if it is a future figurine.

4 days ago

In the human body there is ninety percent water, as, probably, in Paganini, ninety percent love. Even if - as an exception - you are trampled by a crowd, human destiny is ninety percent good. Ninety percent of music, even if it is a disaster, is like ninety percent of you in me, despite the garbage. ❤️

1 month ago

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