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Original Message:   THE AMBER SHOW
The Archaeology Museum at Naples is sponsoring a H U G E exhibit of ancient amber. They produced a very nice catalogue too, but it is only in Italian. I don't know if the show will travel to other locations. The specimens are mainly Italian, dating from as early as ca. 500 BCE, through the Roman Period. There might be a few that are earlier, and there are some that are later—but for the most part the amber comes from this region, from old tombs or old families.

The show is not just amber, but also presents various other types of objects recovered along with the amber. Objects such as pottery, glasswares, and bronzes. Some of this is also jewelry. I will show the stuff that I think ois interesting, when I have a photo that is acceptable.

In ancient times, Baltic amber was a significant trade product, taken down to the Mediterranean civilizations and farther abroad for thousands of years. By Roman times, the Romans actually created expeditions that went up to the Baltic, and brought the amber back. These trade routes and trends have been well researched.

Although we usually think of amber as being yellow (yellow tones that range from white to brown), in as few as 100 years, amber can turn (or begin to turn) dark and often red or reddish. Thus, many of the pieces I'm going to show here are red amber. Having recently written "there is very little natural cherry amber"—to see this much red amber is going to seem like a contradiction. However: 1) most of this amber was yellow in antiquity; and 2) it isn't red-red like the fakes that are passed-off as "cherry amber."

I'm not going to describe these pieces in any detail. Think of this as a feast of the eyes. We begin with two bronze ornaments that are decorated with a few amber beads. These are a pectoral and two bracelets.

Jamey

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