Denmark is under water. The climate is warm and humid. In the large mixed forests grow amber trees - they are tall and probably stand singly. The amber trees sweat and form large quantities of resin, which collect in blobs. Great rivers wash the resin clumps into the sea, where they sink to the bottom together with clay. In the course of millions of years the resin petrifies and becomes amber - the gold of the North.

These "alchemist trees" sweated in fact so heavily that we still find or dig out about half a ton of amber every year. And then only part of the resin was preserved, namely the small portion that ended up under water. Scientists are not sure to which species amber trees belonged. It is believed that it was a type of fir, now extinct. As the climate turned colder, the amber tree was doomed and it did not manage to propagate further south. That is why 95% of all amber comes from these ancient Scandinavian amber forests.

The Oldest Amber in the World
The oldest known amber is about 170 million years old and was found on the Danish island of Bornholm. After the amber forests disappeared the climate changed many times. The glacial streams of the Ice Ages carried enormous quantities of stone and gravel - as well as amber - with them to where Denmark slowly emerged from the sea. Amber bearing strata are present just about everywhere in Denmark in the ground and under the sea bed.

We are rich on amber because the land was formed later than the amber; not because amber trees grew in Denmark, for they didn´t. This is the fascinating explanation of the formation of amber over millions of years - from an old amber tree to the sales counter of today´s goldsmiths. Now you know its history when next time you admire the golden beauty of your own amber ornament.