Baltic amber is fossil resin produced by pine trees which grew in Northern Europe. The resin was washed out of the forest floor by large rivers and transported south towards the sea. In the course of time the resin was transformed to amber due to processes of polymerization and oxidation. Amber is congealed, fossilized resin from prehistoric conifer trees. These trees were profilic growers at the beginning of the Tertiary Period (between twenty and thirty million years ago) and now are extinct. It was transplanted and carried by rivers into the sea off the coast of former East Prussia. And afterwards, the glaciers of the Ice Ages moved the deposits about even more. from there came the natural amber occurrences of the Baltic countries. While the resin was flowing down the tree trunk, it was not unusual for insects and other small forms of life to be trapped and enclosed in the viscid mass. That is why one often finds pieces of amber enclosing specimens of animal life in a remarkably good state of preservation.
In ancient days amber was worth its weight in gold and special caravans were sent from Rome to the Baltic regions to obtain it. It was believed that amber had a magic power-protecting hyman from black forces. Amber is known as a healing stone. Amber is highly valued in our times too its beads and rings, brooches and earrings enjoy wide popularity in many countries of the world. The color of amber has many variations - from almost white to golden, and from reddish to brown. It often happens that one piece has several tints. Amber is known all over the world from remote antiquity. But there is no country where it would have been so grown together with culture, art, customs and mode of life of people. Amber has ideally preserved numerous samples of fauna and flora, that existed some 40-60 million years ago. Small piece of amber can disclose lots of the mysteries of the past.