Amber is the national jewel of Lithuania – precious for Romans and Lithuanians and linked with gold only.

Millions of years ago the small droplets of pine resin, falling down to the water of the river, which brought them to the sea gave the birth to the modern amber. In Roman times amber was more valuable than gold, but now the world has other kinds of precious metals; meanwhile Lithuanians remained loyal to this jewel. That's why until now Lithuanians say that their gold is amber.

So far the biggest piece of amber found is more than weights more than 2 kilos and looks like a loaf of bread. The real beauty of this marvelous stone is not how big it is, but the colour. Some amber pieces are lightly yellow like honey while other can be dark brown as trunk of a tree. It depends on the microscopic bubbles of air, trapped inside. Not only bubbles are trapped inside, but also various prehistoric insects and plants. These inclusions were formed together with amber more than 50 million years ago. The inquisitive insects were attracted to glue-like looking pine tree resin and trapped inside. The soft material with insects were washed to the south to sea where the conditions of oxygen lack made resin a stone with everything what was inside. Until now amber has these inclusions exactly of the same shape and condition like millions of years ago. Paleontologists can see every hair of these perfectly remained fossils. For jewelry masters the piece of amber with an inclusion is a challenge when he or she has to create the masterpiece with a life trapped inside. Such works are especially original and interesting as well as expensive.

Amber is usually found after storm along the beach of the Baltic Sea. People like walking along the coast and gathering small pieces of amber. Not everybody sells them, because it is believed that three small pieces of amber bring luck and prosperity. Some people take these pieces with them everywhere they go putting simply to the wallet. Amber can be also dug industrially. Geologists’ researches show there is 7-8 meters thick layer of amber in the sea only 30-40 cm below sea level near Palvininkai. They also say that in Courtland Lagoon and in particular Juodkrantë about 3000 hectares of these layers were determined. According to the scientists there can be a few hundred thousands tons of pure amber. The very interesting fact is that there is one lake quite far away from the sea where people find amber. The Lukstas is the only lake in Lithuania with amber.

The capabilities of amber gave electricity. In Ancient Greece this precious stone was called elektron. Some ancient scientists noticed that if one smoothes the piece of amber with woolen tissue, the stone has the same characteristics as magnet, which was already known. Later on physics discovered that the capability of keeping not the same material is because of interference of electrons of two surfaces. The diffusion process was discovered and later linked with electron movement through metal wire. Lithuanian linguists were even determined to refuse the international word of electricity and to change it with Lithuanian gintra. In translation to English this word would sound like “ambericity“. It is a big joke, but electricity still remains unchangeable.

Lithuania probably has the best amber jewelry masters in the World, because from the ancient times the main good exported from Baltic tribes to Roman Empire was amber, furs and honey. From these times Lithuanian women wore jewelry made from brass and amber. Amber is included in Lithuanian national costumes. It is strongly rooted in Lithuanian mythology. The legend about sea goddess Jûratë and fisherman Kàstytis tells how the amber appeared in the beach. Jûratë was the goddess of the Baltic Sea living in a huge palace of amber; her father was sea God Bangpûtys. She fell in love with mortal young fisherman Kàstytis, then Bangpûtys got angry and killed them both together ruining her amber palace. The pieces of amber palace were rolled by the waves ashore, where people gathered them and considered amber as a symbol of eternal and beautiful love.

Despite truth and legends about amber Lithuanians keep special sentiments for this stone. That's why it is called the Lithuanian gold.