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Definition: amber from Philip's Encyclopedia

Hard, yellow or brown, translucent fossil resin, mainly from pine trees. Amber is most often found in alluvial soils, in lignite beds or around seashores, especially the Baltic Sea. The resin sometimes occurs with embedded fossil insects or plants. Amber can be polished to a high degree, and is used to make necklaces and other items of jewellery.


amber

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
fossilized tree resin . Amber can vary in color from yellow to red to green and blue. The best commercial amber is transparent, but some varieties are cloudy. To be called amber, the resin must be several million years old; recently hardened resins are called copals. The tree species that produced amber are now extinct. They included cedars and other conifers and broadleaved trees. The most famous source of the world's amber is the Baltic coast of Germany. Amber is also found off the coasts of Sicily and England and in Lebanon and Jordan and Myanmar (Burma). In the Western Hemisphere, there are rich deposits in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the state of New Jersey. Amber is of interest both for its decorative value and for the ancient, once-living inclusions that it preserves. Capable of being highly polished, it is the oldest decorative substance known. It was familiar to Paleolithic peoples and to the Greeks and Romans, who used it extensively in jewelry. Pliny recounts several…
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Various facets and colours of amber
Warm, glowing and imbued with the traces of millions of years in Earth's history, amber has attracted attention since prehistoric times. Stone Age amber artifacts are on display in museums around the world. In classical times, it was used medicinally and was also believed to offer a magical light…
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Full text Article amber

From Word Origins
Amber was borrowed, via Old French, from Arabic 'anbar , which originally meant ‘ambergris’ (and in fact until the early 18th century amber was used for ‘ambergris’ too). A perceived resemblance between the two substances had already led in Arabic to ‘amber’ ousting ‘ambergris’ as the main meaning…
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Full text Article amber

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
fossilized tree resin . Amber can vary in color from yellow to red to green and blue. The best commercial amber is transparent, but some varieties are cloudy. To be called amber, the resin must be several million years old; recently hardened resins are called copals. The tree species that produced…
| 360 words
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Full text Article Amber

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present Full text Article A-Z Entries
A stone-like substance made of fossilized tree resin. The most common color of amber is yellow, but red, green, and blue varieties also exist. Amber was produced millions of years ago by a number of now-extinct species of trees, mostly conifers. More recently hardened resins are called copals. Amber…
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Full text Article Amber

From Encyclopedia of Insects
The oldest known hard ticks of the family...
Amber is a fossilized resin ranging from several million to 300 million years of age. It has a melting point between 200°C and 380°C, a hardness of 2–3 on the Moh’s scale, a specific gravity between 1.04 and 1.10 and a surface that is insoluble to organic solvents. Amber is a gold mine for the…
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Full text Article amber

From The Chambers Dictionary
a yellowish fossil resin; a clear brownish-yellow colour; the orange traffic light, which acts as a cautionary signal between red (stop) and green (go); ambergris ( obs ). adj made of amber; of the colour of amber. [Fr ambre , from Ar ‘ anbar ambergris] adj ( obs ) embedded in amber; flavoured with…
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Full text Article amber

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Fossilized resin from coniferous trees of the Middle Tertiary period. It is often washed ashore on the Baltic coast with plant and animal specimens preserved in it; many extinct species have been found preserved in this way. It ranges in colour from red to yellow, and is used to make jewellery. When…
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Amber can be confusing—is it a fossil or a precious stone? It’s actually both. Amber is tree resin that drips down the bark, entrapping anything in its path, from flowers to insects. Over the years, it falls off the trees and ends up in rivers or on the ground, where it continues to fossilize. …
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Full text Article amber

From The American Heritage Student Science Dictionary
A hard, transparent or translucent, brownish-yellow substance that is the fossilized resin of ancient trees, often used as a gem-stone. amber Certain trees, especially conifers, produce a sticky substance called resin to protect themselves against insects and fungi. Resin normally decays, but under…
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Full text Article Amber Routes

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present Full text Article A-Z Entries
Mined since the pre-Roman era on the Jutland...
A historical trade route from northern to southern Europe that supplied the Mediterranean with the semiprecious material amber. The amber trade appears to have been established early, with evidence suggesting a beginning 5,000 years ago. Amber is found in Egyptian and Minoan tombs dating back as far…
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