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The reconstructed Amber Room. 	Source: Public Domain

The Majestic Amber Room that Went Missing From Charlottenburg Palace

The gleaming yellow gold hue of amber is one of nature’s wonders and one which has been sought after and admired for centuries. It is perhaps for this reason that the precious fossilized tree resin...
Between 34,000 and 24,000 years ago, diverse European cultures from the Gravettian period utilized marine shells, teeth, beads, and other ornaments for personal adornment, shown here. Source: J. Baker, et al/Nature

Prehistoric Jewelry Unveils 9 Distinct Paleolithic European Cultures

A fascinating new study has explored the cultural behavior of prehistoric humans in Europe from tens of thousands of years ago, and learnt that our ancestors adorned themselves with a diverse array...
Amber’s beauty and utility has been recognized since Neolithic times, being used in jewelry as well as medicine. Source: HJSchneider / Adobe Stock

Amber Through the Ages: Origin Myths, Medical Uses, and Beautiful Baubles

Amber, or succinite as a mineralogist might call it, hails from simple beginnings. It is simply fossilized tree sap. For something so humble, it has managed to captivate the human imagination for...
One of the rare amber rings found in a 1,000-year-old grave in Poland. Source: Jerzy Sikora

1,000-Year-Old Chamber Burial on Polish Island Reveals Rare Treasures

A 1,000-year-old grave on a remote island in northern Poland has been found to be richly furnished with grave goods, some of them extremely rare. Two amber rings, a bronze bowl, an iron knife in a...
Fibulas dating to the 4th – 7th centuries AD from the Russian Putilovo-2 cemetery, where countless Baltic amber elite graves were found.		Source: Konstantin N. Skvortsov / Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

New Finds Show Ancient Baltic Amber Elites Weren’t Ignorant or Dumb!

Until now, ancient Baltic tribes have been incorrectly branded as being ignorant and dumb. However, the recent discovery of hundreds of Baltic amber elite graves on the Russian Sambia Peninsula, full...
Scientists have found the world’s oldest sperm cells. Source: bluebay2014 /Adobe Stock

World’s Oldest Sperm Cells Found Trapped in Amber

Paleontologists working in Myanmar have found the oldest sperm cells in the world. They were trapped in amber 100 million years ago, have been described as ‘giant,’ and come from a mussel-like...
Known to all and feared by many, the Curonians were famed for their prowess in battle, strong warrior culture, and an infamous reputation of raiding and plundering their neighboring shores. Source: destillat / Adobe Stock

Men from the Land of Amber: The Shocking History of the Fierce Curonians

The modern Baltic nations of Latvia and Lithuania owe a lot to their fierce and rich history. The fearsome tribes of Balts – close cousins to the neighboring Slavs – carved for themselves a small...
Amber holds the secret to the tiny world of the age of dinosaurs.  Source: Xing Lida, CC BY-ND / The Conversation

This Tiny Predator Existed Alongside the Giant Dinosaurs

By Lars Schmitz & Jingmai Kathleen O'Connor / The Conversation In 2016, our colleague Xing Lida held up a small piece of polished, deeply yellow amber. As sunlight shone through the ancient resin...
Artists impression of the bird with a third toe 41 per cent longer than the second toe. Source: Zhongda Zhang/Current Biology

Unique Bird With Bizarrely Long Toe Found Fossilized in Amber

Meet the ancient bird that had toes longer than its lower legs. Researchers have discovered a bird foot from 99 million years ago preserved in amber that had a hyper-elongated third toe. The study,...
Photo of “Hell Ant” in amber. Profile view of a Linguamyrmex vladi worker head. Paleontology Department of the American Museum of Natural History, United States.

Scientists Discover an Ancient Bio-Metallic Vampire Ant

A 98-million-year-old amber specimen collected from an excavation in Myanmar, formerly Burma, has yielded a new species of 'hell ant' with a spiky metallic mouth which it used to suck its victims’...
World First as Feathered Dinosaur Tail is Found Preserved in Amber

World First as Feathered Dinosaur Tail is Found Preserved in Amber

Researchers from China, Canada, and the University of Bristol have discovered a dinosaur tail complete with its feathers trapped in a piece of amber. The finding reported today in Current Biology...
Metals in Bronze Age Weapons Discovered in Sweden Came from Distant Lands

Metals in Bronze Age Weapons Discovered in Sweden Came from Distant Lands

Researchers analyzing bronze daggers, swords, and axes found in bogs and graves at various places in Sweden over the years have made a surprising find. Some of the artifacts date as far back 3,600...
The flea caught in amber

Amber encases a flea infected 20 million years ago with bubonic plague-type bacteria

Closely related ancestors of the bacteria that cause the bubonic plague may be millions of years older than the 14 th century, when the disease devastated Asia and killed more than half of Europe’s...