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Where it's at
Riga is commonly known as the Paris of Eastern Europe.
It's a cosmopolitan mixture of Russian, German and Latvian
influences. One of the city's highlights is the Riga Central
Market that takes place around several WWI Zeppelin Hanger.
The best souvenir to buy here is Amber; it's washed up along
the Baltic coast where locals collect it to sell to tourists.
This amber has made the region renowned amongst jewellery
lovers, traders and archaeologists.
What is amber?
Amber dates from pre-historic times, a staggering twenty to
fifty million years old. It is fossilised resin of ancient
conifers tree, formed by pressure and time. The transparent,
glowing flame-coloured jewel preserves within itself the remains
of many insects, spiders and small vertebrates. Air bubbles
in the oils cause an entrancing white pearling effect through
the amber. In folklore, the powers attributed to the jewel
include love, strength, luck, healing and protection, calming
for hyperactivity and relieving stress. Amber was also believed
to provide magicians and sorcerers with special enhanced powers.
It is a very soft substance and should be worn with care to
prevent marring the stone.
History and origins
Trading in amber probably started in the New Stone Age.
During different stages of history and in many parts of the
world, amber has been used as money, as jewellery or ornaments,
and even as a medicine. Beads made from Baltic amber have
been found sealed inside tombs built on the Greek island of
Crete around 1000 BC.
In ancient Rome, women wore amber medallions as a remedy
for sore throats or swollen glands. In the East, there was
a belief that amber smoke strengthened the human spirit and
imparted courage. In China "amber syrup", a mixture
of amber extract and opium, was used as a tranquilizer. Even
as recently as the 1930s German mothers were putting amber
beads on their babies to make teething less painful and teeth
grow stronger.
Whatever its mystical or medicinal powers, amber is truly
beautiful to look at. Scientists have named at least 250 colours
or shades, and if you look at amber jewellery close-up you'll
see that its colour can change with the light. Its shades
range from greenish to a warm, reddish orange, and pieces
can often include tiny insects, flowers or pieces of bark
which were trapped when the sticky tree sap fell to the forest
floor millions of years ago.
The amber found in the Baltic region comes from an ancient
pine forest that once grew in the northern part of Scandinavia.
Pieces of amber were washed out of the soil by two ancient
rivers, which carried it down to the Baltic sea. As thousands
of years passed, the amber was taken by the currents and built
up within the soil along the Baltic coast, where traders learned
to dig for it, or to go prospecting in the sands. There are
still rich deposits of amber in the Baltic, and, even now,
strong gales or violent storms can bring a harvest of amber
nuggets onto the beaches of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
Where to bag a bargain
You might like to go prospecting along these coastlines yourself.
However, an easier way to find amber when you're exploring
the Baltic region is to spend some time in the Latvian
Nature Museum in Riga, the Liepaja Museum of Art and
History, the Latvian History Museum or the Latvian
Institute of History, where the largest archaeological
amber collections are held. If you're travelling to Lithuania,
you could visit the Amber Museum in Vilnius.
The trade in amber jewellery has grown with increased tourism
to the Baltic states, and in most cities you'll find shops
and market stalls selling beautiful, locally-made pendants,
rings, brooches and beads. There are some twenty amber stalls
behind St. Peter's Church in Riga and even more
private traders who will hustle any tourist on a stroll through
Old Riga to buy their amber.
How to spot a good buy
Have a sharp eye as some amber resembles heavy resins like
plastic. Look out for a white pearling and sediment within
the resin.
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