The study of amber is of scientific importance in the
field of archaeometry,
the branch of archaeology that applies modern analytical methods to
the study of material remains of past cultures.
More than 6000 artifacts analyzed
Having determined the origin of more than 6000
ancient amber artifacts from Europe, the Near East, and China over the
course of four decades, the Amber Research Lab has made a significant
contribution to the field of organic archaeometry. Recently, the analysis
of amber carvings from the Liao Dynasty in northeast China has shown
that amber was traded from Northern Europe to the Far East a thousand
years ago.
Expanding the research Today,
new methods of analysis, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS),
have expanded the research to include the chemical composition and,
by implication, the botanical sources of fossil resins. These methods
have led to studies of materials made from resins, i.e. tar and pitch
(elements essential to shipbuilding and also used to line the transport
amphorae in which wine and pickled fish were shipped throughout the
Mediterranean). Comparative studies of pine tar made under controlled
laboratory conditions have made it possible to determine the technology
and temperatures that were used in making ancient tar and pitch obtained
from Mediterranean shipwrecks, and even allow the identification of
the species of pine from which an ancient tar was made. Most recently
the ARL participated in two studies of ancient food remains. One had
to do with the remains of the funerary feast of King
Midas of Phrygia, and the other with organic residues in Minoan
and Mycenaean pottery that led to an exhibition in the Greek National
Museum in the summer of 1999.
Today,
new methods of analysis, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS),
have expanded the research to include the chemical composition and,
by implication, the botanical sources of fossil resins. These methods
have led to studies of materials made from resins, i.e. tar and pitch
(elements essential to shipbuilding and also used to line the transport
amphorae in which wine and pickled fish were shipped throughout the
Mediterranean). Comparative studies of pine tar made under controlled
laboratory conditions have made it possible to determine the technology
and temperatures that were used in making ancient tar and pitch obtained
from Mediterranean shipwrecks, and even allow the identification of
the species of pine from which an ancient tar was made. Most recently
the ARL participated in two studies of ancient food remains. One had
to do with the remains of the funerary feast of