These are medium-sized polished pieces of Amber from the Baltic Sea. They are clean without much debris and have many "sunbursts," glittering spots where water trapped inside the Amber expanded and created a small, disk-like fracture.
More Information:
Amber is the fossilized resin of various ancient species of coniferous and flowering trees. It is one of the few organic substances to qualify as a gemstone. Its color and opacity are determined by the type of tree that produced the resin, as well as the density of microscopic air bubbles inside.
Amber has the ability to preserve bits of forest debris from millions of years ago. Insects, small reptiles, plants and seeds, and even microorganisms like bacteria found in amber have been examined by scientists for more clues to how our diverse planet evolved.
Amber is used for many cosmetic and medicinal purposes, like perfume, incense, skin care, baby teething, and more. The oldest amber recovered dates back to the Upper Carboniferous period, about 320 million years ago, but most of the commercial amber we see is from plants that did not evolve until the Jurassic or early Cretaceous periods, about 150 million to 180 million years ago.
This is a representative picture the pieces that we have, and we'll pick the most interesting one for you (in our estimation) at the time of purchase.
Location: Baltic Sea
Measurements: ~ 1" x 1/2"
