TREASURES AND THEIR SEEKERS

As early as in the Stone Age people used everything what could find - animal teeth, shells, flat stones, stones - in the manufacture of ornaments and amulets. Pieces of amber washed ashore were perfectly suited for this purpose.

Amber adornments were used in Lithuania already in the 4th century BC. Amber pendants, beads, brooches and statuettes of people and animals were found at excavation sites of Stone Age settlements. Scientists think that statuettes represented protectors - world rulers - of those times and served as amulets.

What is amber?
Formation
Morphology
Inclusions
Colours
From soil and water
Treatment
Real or not?
Qualities
Amber routes
Archeological finds

Amber in medicine
Relatives throughout the World
Museum in museum

The first biggest amber treasure was found while dredging amber in the Curonian Bay in the vicinity of Juodkrantė in 1860-1881. Scientists from around the world became interested in unique New Stone Age decorative amber objects dating back to the 3rd millennium B.C. This is the famous R.Klebs collection called "Juodkrantė Treasure". It consists of raw amber and 434 complete handicraft articles. The collection contains many pendants of different forms: long and narrow, regular with an oblique base, almost rectangular and oval. Different brooches have been found - small round and oval, up to 4,5 cm long, big boat-shaped, some of them have plain surface, others are decorated with dots. Different tube-shaped beads with straight to slightly curved sides that have surface ranging from lightly retouched to highly polished and many links and disks have also been found. New Stone age plastic art objects - amber statuettes of men and animals - are an exceptionally valuable part of this collection. All these objects have been described in by R.Klebs who later included them in book "Stone Age Amber Adornments" published in 1882. During WW II the collection disappeared.

Bronė Kunkulienė, a most highly experienced restorer of Pranas Gudynas Centre for Restoration of Works of Art restored the collection comparing remaining drawings with analogue Stone Age amber ornaments found on the Baltic Coast and now it is on view in amber museums in Vilnius and Nida.

Rimutė Rimantienė, Doctor of History, has been excavating swamps in seaside town Šventoji for 20 years and found many unique archaeological amber ornaments. Not only big number of amber articles but also plenty of raw material and semimanufactured articles have been found in Šventoji. The scientist suggests that one of the biggest east Baltic amber excavation and processing centres was situated here.

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