Number one of the great mysteries and the treasures of the world. And one of the largest of the positive stuff is right here in the baltic sea. So we are in the clinic, rod region, trying to learn all the we can about this multi go. The want to meet cool is a geologist and pay me intelligence. Amber is important to his work and hes the perfect person to give us some perspective. The 3rd one is here. Um, i see found some amber. Lets get right to it. Scientists disagree as to what exactly it is. Is it a stone . Is it a gym . Is it resin . What is amber . Exactly. The just need to be in part. Yes, im a good question. From a deal logical point of view, you cant cool amber, a mineral, a minimal levine or a stone . Its an organic substance. Good. Fossilized resin or if this cup, im a small from a chemical point of view, its an im office frame paloma, its composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Its literally like most organic substances on us. They can also contain impurities, like sofa and other elements, means that water is amber. Its fossilized resident with the fossilized greg information plants will love it, even if you have the ancient greeks new with them. But i dont get a call region smaller and is origin from plants even you agree to to us when he wrote about the steve is to have some baltic drive that lived in the 1st century. A d said they collected fossilized resident which contained remnants of the plan. So for, for that was back in ancient greece. And during the 18th century, called an s and the great and if i use them and also for almost simultaneously to time into that, and it will get taken nature and comes from plants to push the number is only found in the leningrad region. Theres literally, its just that theres a lot. Yeah. Ill tell you why a little later. Um, but it can be found in many places around the world is mostly in the northern hemisphere. Dominican number is very famous as well as them, but from them to me having as built in my tool desk, theres also a lot of amber in the far north. You started in the polar regions for moving the tamia to peninsula on. So kind of in near lake bank of serial and both fridays. Um, but renew are up in 3 places. I mean, you can, in the rounds coming drugs, poland, ukraines roof in the region. Good amended germany, sex any, no game this embers old roughly the same age, but its very important that the m bus throughout the world is a difference of geological ages through the stuff in some places. There is geologically young member and now those at smaller ancient. But many geologists may consider sucks unite to be true and sex, doing different types of them. But i have different names here, thought she was, this is called sucks. And i to, i knew it exists here in leningrad, just enrolled now and in germany. Full arrest found in various parts of the world of gold, amber like residence. Yeah. They differ in their physical and chemical properties. Theyre less dense lesson biscuits and really used to make jewelry. Last, whats good about all around the, you know, a section i think what is that its actively used in jewelry making me an interesting question is how and the phone and when that happens to postpone talk about as of all see me, scientists have just for ways of measuring the age of um, amber. So what is the oldest known sample that we have available to us . Oh, no. Okay. Yes maam. And you before it started because he said, well of course its not as old as our planet tool. As we know from the oldest rocks, this is 4500000000 years old. Oh, planet was formed around 4 to 6000000 years ago. Sure. Some of the out of it as well as the moon and the planet system, pulling up my system, of course. And there is a very young compared to the smaller amber like the piece in my hand. And that is around 37000000 years old. Its, its, its geologically young, but theres more ancient amber. I used, for example, in burma, who am i am, uh oh, its about a 100000000 years old. From the cretaceous period, houses from the polio gene bay area would be you know, them, but gold, cocoa. Its very young, 30, a few 1000 years old. You can find it in japan and south east asia. And in the southern hemisphere, you can find coco students argentina. If you wouldnt mind, its just a few 1000 years old. But how do we know the age of following . If we look at this deposit would become a reading deposit from an ancient see if it was its the same age as december. Is it possible that you can find a book in them but to a lesser degree . Must be as low as they were formed in a sea, but not the baltic sea. Yeah. The baltics that youve geologically. Yeah, sure. Its 10 to 12000 years old. And yeah, because it was formed in iglesia lake. It was with the baltic. Sea is now doing this came from a melting garcia. Its about 20000 years ago. But before that, this land was dry hunter. And under these calm marine Shallow Water conditions, i thought of the sales clay and some deposits foamed what we see here, a sort of tends to 2 to 3 meters and the rest of it is a different kind of deposit gold with blue, suitable blue ground bed watching and amber is highly concentrated us in pursuit nicely in this blue us and the forging the soul. Amber reserves can be found in blue. This is why, why do we find amber here on the coast water . Because this blue s extends out about 10 meters from the sea bottom, no thought with lips, then well see wash it down. The other is lighter than water. Its light. So it ends up on the beach and we connected. Yes it most of it, right . So about the age of amber, youve talked about that, but how long does it take for the resident to actually become amber itself if the which flows and thats very complicated because these other ring deposits that and performed on land comes from trees. So there are many hypotheses about this. One of the theories is that the was a Shallow Water see here, and ive also left them the weathers land. The river flowed 37000000 years ago, just. It was cold enough to spend the forests growing throughout all of this area that produced this residence. The resin fell into the river and here to see where were supposed its miles where it fluid into it, like google and all that down. But from the river, accumulated in this marine settlement on the basis of the chemical physical transformation of arisen into m. There is complex and its still not completely clear how because its not moon, how long its spent in the soil is blue. Or if it fell directly into the river, or if it laying the ground and was then washed into it. Because motor number like quite tough to remember if the cocoa thats been dug up is very brittle, like a typical resin truck. Its not sticky with but very brittle, its just you, but it sucks and it has a very Interesting Properties, but its very hard with a high melting point. Its almost like can be found in different colors. And so want to use that tool connected to its origin because we still dont understand what kind of tree produce them. But whats your booth, for example, japanese and, but was produced by the goodman histories. But what exactly was and finally done, snow cool for in the country. The main Scientific Research points those times raise, because we find kind twiggs in the embassy to spend the japanese umbrella find. Thats also a kind of forestry, but still grows today. Its just, its also, its not really clear, but i think was that it will eventually show us that comes up on, you know, most the book of us. What about this place itself . I know youve already mentioned that there are other places around the world where amber is available and you can find it. But it is often said that here in the baltic, its the best quality, amber. Why . The baltic white here . Im not talking about. Well, so do you said a 1000000 years ago that was a completely different conditions. Now its cold like that, but then there was sub tropical conditions. It was quite warm will the why the continents learned about the same place as now. But with and talk like it, we had a continental drift until the ticket was connected to us strangely. There was no and optics component current as a threat. There was no ice cap on the optics and dr. Go and there wasnt a temperate climate here. How do we know it was warm because sucks and if there is deposits, have accumulated fossils from life forms that like teeth, that dont live in the baltics anymore. So this deposit is gold. Is emily a credit . Otherwise theres an electron. There are a lot that have accumulated was if you search, you will find some what start to look, get over the 1st find that the noise to show us the history event and number of which of heat loving animals and then the waste is in the baltic now, lets look here and we didnt really have see countries or muscles is usually a completely different dynamos. Live here on the see bed look starts familiar with with also a little c h and you see yeah, right here. Okay, so how do they get here . I mean, we know that for appealing and tell, just like yourself, amber, is a very rich material for you to find history and to learn about our past. And what has been the coolest thing that youve been able to find youre just using . Well, actually its not only fossils, we find them, but bearing deposits in your worst identity, amber itself. There are fossil inclusions because thats a very interesting because if the fossil loses its structure, manually inclusions because of the tiniest details like inside passing through from apollyon to logical point of view. Thats a treasure trove. Whats the truth of new knowledge about the ancient and before is that existed here 37000000 years ago. I think a lot, but i went speak for myself, but about the ref. Finds you can come across and use it for example. So lizards have been found in both a kind of get goes camel spiders that live in warm regions via you know, the majority of animals. We find the number of all for about the small animals that fell into it rather than trap. They couldnt get out and just remained to that was but its rare to find the big around them. It was because big around the most can to escape from the residence that we very rarely find fleas because flees on them all of our sites and they can jump very quickly. Not so long ago had was found from a memo. Weve never come across the premium will, for example, in dominican amber, which is more ancient. And boy there was a famous dinosaur, find you the hand of a small bird like dinah. So what i have to ask a lot of people have seen the movie Jurassic Park and are fascinated by the idea. In fact, when i telling people about amber, this is the 1st thing they asked me, is this something that scientists are working on to be able to extract the dna and maybe revive dinosaurs or something along those lines . The just, thats a good question. This is actually if you look at the inclusions in the book, you can see find details here, and smart gate does work, but its on sale. So defense, its a poly merick substance. Yeah, theres a diffusion takes place. What we see is the animal itself, its a sort of animal in print like a 3 d shadow. If the animal itself, for the region is practically no biological content, the reason the all to buy a new clay a gas, it has a quite complicated struct of the composers quite quickly. And its only for about 500 years or so. They conducted some experiments. They took residence, todays residence, they bought insects and it is very dizzily slip and trying to sequence the dna. About 5 years went by was the no results showing that we could completely recreate dna item and that was only after 5 years. And were talking millions of years. Unfortunately, ember is a poor trap for such organic structures when it comes to dna. Also, jurassic tough may be a great and beautiful fairy tale, but unfortunately, it is just a fairy tale. What about the clarity . So you have very Different Levels of color. Sometimes its a milky sometimes if even blue is one of the rare colors, what gives amber . Its a specific color. And why is there such a wide range . You say, oh you think the milky and whats the transparent them . It can be light blue or a greenish color. Oh, this depends on the embers chemical composition. Lets see if there are many aspects to consider. It depends on the kinds of impurity this was the amount of fracturing remo fracturing thats transparent when there are a few of fractures, it can be highly transparent when there are a lot of fractures, its more ro, pagan, a solution, but most highly value them. But there is milky amber because its stronger thing. Its the most commonly used in jewelry making. Theres also a rolton amber which is very fragile, but thats all connected to its physical chemical properties. But the chemical formular itself is always about the same, but do not cover such a c 14. 00, h 16. 00 or 2 full. But that could be an inclusion of different elements. Just let me know if you junior, because its really meant for me. What about the physical characteristics . I mean member can float. Its not particularly dense. It actually burns, if you try and set it on fire, its in melts. What are some of the other characteristics of amber and why is it this way . Oh, that isnt the what you know the source machine city well, um, but has a lot of Interesting Properties in the summer and probably the most interesting is its luminescence. If we want to come here at night with an ultra violet light and turn it on and wed see how it glows in different colors, new key green. Those are transparent, luminous, light blue. Thats also caused by that old genic lattice that reacts to the ultra violet light. So she had what asked to ask. Im fascinated by her tattoos. I know that you love what you do and it shows in our conversation. But your tattoos, are they amber related as well . Are these just random creatures that youve adorned yourself with . No, no, this is the fun question. Um we have some parental. Im a probably on till logistics as i conduct research in various areas. Not only these em but bearing deposit seconds. My ph. D dissertation was im trying to buy extinct marine offer pucks witness now to become a full professor. Im working on a paper thats also ones ancient golfer pods, immune system, oregon. And so these are the kinds of species ive written about. Okay, so uh, yeah, so thats my style. I guess the year at the amber museum including grab, they have one of the Worlds Largest collections of the precious stones. You do not keep on us is the exhibition curator here and i bet sheets has some stories to tell the eating. And thanks for taking the time to meet us here. Um this is such a beautiful collection. I wanna ask, what has amber meant to teacher managing throughout the years . So she origin by chicago across the theres a lot to take in here because amber has great significance for me just because we dont know exactly why it was considered magical, 4000 years ago. And thats what it seems that was magically that where were at the beginning of the period the amber trade was making it was connected with the romans who considered amber to be a magical stone because of a greek legend. The amber trade greatly accepted the Economic Life of europe during that period, even though it started here. When the i asked he lived on this land is later, amber became one of the most important materials traded between the hands, sciatic league, and the teutonic order. It is just then a diplomatic gift, a gemstone, and the medicine for half before the majority of diseases. So now it makes fantastic jewelry. And in principle we can find amber throughout Human History so. So troy is priesthood. So either i know that there are a lot of legends surrounding amber. Uh, what is your favorite was probably my favorite one describes the attitude of people in ancient rome towards amber, which has had an influence on many of us being able, its the story of a paste on your phone who suspected that he was the son of helio the sun, god shall see us to drive his fathers chariot with its fiery horses, but couldnt cope with and was killed if the sub list. And now according to the legend, amber is present and also the tears of the daughters of the sun god showing it. So this shows the attitude of the romans towards amber. Its the stone that lights away in the after life. Well, theres a legend that started various violins were even coated with a powder of amber. What other uses are there for this stone . Youve always for this fortune noise, its been used for many different things. Defend or anything from diplomatic gifts, this to amber lenses for measuring the density of beer. And at some point it was discovered that amber improve circulation has been and can be used for blood transfusions. Grove, in the 17th century, or even earlier, many medicines contained amber is when it was actually thought the amber was a cure for the plane. Although that may have been a legend started by amber catchers who spent a lot of time in water. So they had better hygiene at the well, none the less, the spell doctors treating the plague to amber wisdom and put it in the beach masks. It was thought the amber or a unicorn horn, which was actually ivory and could detect to poison and food or drinks to ship. Those things were quite readily available. But they still thought it had these power. 6 it, there was a belief, the amber powder or oils were very useful for treating diseases for me to find out which disease is exactly why youd have to collect prescriptions from all over europe. For example, theres one prescription from the pope, from the 13th century. This piece of property is cool thing, not split. The so how does amber make its way from the mines in its natural state to jewelry and museum showcases, were able to get access to december coming up to a unique entity which handles the whole process. The alright, thank you very much for taking the time to bring us out here and see how this all goes down. So i have to ask, this deposit is about 50000000 years old. My understanding is to get something that old you have to go really, really deep. Maybe even down to the core or does the amber just kind of find its way up to the surface . Talk to me about that process. So theres some love you have enough. Yes. A very valid question im. Were now located at the side of the biggest amber deposit on the planet to get to the layers with amber bearing clay. We have to remove 50 to 60 meters, so waste, or you know, thats what most of our people work on. So we do 10 times more work removing ways to get to the blue earth. If the side has been in operation since the 9th and 17 in a month where it says theyve extracted 10000 tons of amber here. And theres got to be 100000 left voltage to so you and i surely wont live to see you over move. Can you read them thoughts . So talk to me about the whole process. So you dig, you find you process it, talk to me, how do you find amber . You know much them. So whats the, well, any Mining Operation begins with geological exploration. I think you would geologists search for the amber they could bore whole new tests and determine the con tours of the deposit and its volume. But i was giving you after that were bringing the miners of your will already know approximately what depth will will find amber deposits. How much there will be. And we can already make some preliminary calculations and look at the economy shortly as far as the equipment is concerned. So form of 50 meters using various ill shoot you, my employer move the 1st 25 meters with small excavators and trucks, which take all the waste or is from the develop space. And the bit of them, i mean we remove the lower layers where you can find water, that henders Vehicle Movement off with drag line excavators near which you can see over there about that arent affected by water adult. Wasting my arms one bucket low can remove about 20 tons of the waste or if it, you know, thats what its doing. Now, it shouldnt. And when this excavator finishes its work up, so we will finally reach the top of the blue earth with a 5 meter deep layer of blue earth, which contains the amber. Hopefully she will, we need to lift this layer with the help of the excavator. And so keep with the powerful stream of sea water. So after that, the slurry made up a scan of a clay and sea water, as well as the amber itself, goes to our Processing Plant out of our separation and sorting stuff. Them very cool. Now when i think of amber, i think of small pieces with inclusions in them. What is the biggest piece of amber . Are the most exciting thing that you found here . For a yellow as much all and maybe i dont know. So now i wont say about this i, but in general, 0 has been established that a piece of amber weighing 12 kilograms was found in the baltic coast in the 19th century. Its or thats a very rare example on bill, and i would say probably wasnt of the best quality because the bigger is a piece of amber. The more likely it is to have floss expecting that this far this side is concerned. Like a few years ago, we found a piece weighing more than 3 kilograms, so youll feel like its now in the sites. Amber museum, where anyone who wants to see can boys are likely with a variety of shapes and large color palette. Amber has always been an inspiring medium for many artists. Piano. The pumpkin has family, has been looking at giving amber, a new perspective. Well, also preserving centuries of tradition, the piano, its always interesting to come into an Artist Workshop to see where everything happens. So thank you for the opportunity. I know that amber is quite fragile to work with. Is this an asset or is this something that uh, harms you when youre working with . Uh yeah, i was raised here in cohen in grad and i been coming to the coast and collecting amber since i was a child to get a quote. It was very exciting. I knew it was light and fragile, even back then you simply fall in love with this material and little by little he learned to work with it. You acceptance for jill . It a nice but i have a project with but little bit here. Touch it. Yeah. You i worked on the edge here, slipping off pieces. So just so i played around with its for jewelry and it turned out like this book at all is so there are advantages to you for choice because dealer how do you select a piece of ember to work with . Yeah, what they do not support. So i use 2 methods, i lay out the amber, i buy it at the mill, this is fine. We cut it into the slabs and sort them by size. Okay . There are 2 options, basically do something with what you have or come up with an idea by carefully selecting each piece. You can go through everything there and then find none of it works for you. So even if you have a ton of amber, your idea might not fit. Its a very long process, but in any case, you have to find the right piece small. Set a little data to lay too. I know that some artists actually color the amber in some way. Do you color your amber specifically for a piece of work . Or do you like to use the natural color that exists . Yeah, which i only like to use natural amber, just natural colors without any chemicals. Or physical coloring, because its great is it is you can choose a piece of amber to work on, but with time its color will change. Its very interesting and how you execute your work will impact the color over time. And how it might look later. It depends on the artist of skill every now i wanted to ask about that those amber actually change over time. Not just the color, but the, the texture of the emperor as well. Uh, for its shape. Yes, its white amber for example. Here the oil evaporates little by little and this changes its structure a bit. But these are Little Things that only a craftsman will notice. The color of this kind of amber will change year by year. If you have a piece like this, you can take a picture of it every year, and every year youll see a different color. Its very interesting. So if we take amber of this usual golden color, it will start darkening 20 or 30 years later or so thats quite a long time. But it will only become more valuable with time is valuable, increase with that color. And its interesting that my favorite amber is black amber. I dont think its very well known color for amber. So it has an interesting peculiarity and that it does the opposite. Over time. It becomes slightly gold and every year its like a drop of gold is that as well . So its very interesting to observe this a little bit of that. Very cool. Now youve touched on this a little bit before, but i see that you have a sketch over here. When you are working with amber, do you sketch out your ideas and then follow that pattern or just the amber speak to you . To give you an idea of what youre working on, you know ive learned how to make the stone work for me and get to meet you plan the work and already know which stone to work with, which is less vehicle quick i knew kind of would may i ask what youre working on right now, i guess to just deal with what im, what im doing this. Not long ago, they discovered a horde of valuables from 1300 b, c, and cyprus in found pieces of amber. So people have been extracting december for all that time going into the sea and collecting it. And my project is called the emperor capture. Unfortunately, people die collecting this amber even now young people who havent really mastered scuba diving also die. So this idea came to me to amber capture, to whether its a realistic person or some kind of human form worse call. And so im doing this kind of work now. And these are already finished forms of practically ready to be worked on whats good. So these are the shapes that im working. Its also interesting. Thank you very much. Appreciated the, [000 00 00;00] the, the, the, the, the, the, the west african eco, was blocked orders the deployment of a stand by military force moving a potential intervention in these there one step closer. India passes a bill in parliament for appealing controversial solution last stating back. Its the colonial times. Senators in america called for a cut to existing military aid to each of siding Human Rights Concerns will stimulate turning a blind eye to crimes taking place in ukraine. Also has all the hopes and dreams of a whole Community Riding on this vast machine as it actually takes up a spike near machine power your towards the cause most russia head to the