Prehistoric craftsmen made fakes: Amber imitations that managed to confuse science

Amber has been many things throughout history. In the 2nd century in Athens, Demostratus called amber lyncurium because he thought it was made from lynx urine. Later, in the 5th century, people believed that when the sun touched the surface of the sea, the rays of light were transformed into amber. Such was the fascination with this material that it was believed to have magical properties: a remedy for madness and an amulet for fertility and good luck. Some gladiators even sewed pieces of amber into their garments. It was Pliny the Elder, in Ancient Rome, who was the first to suggest that it had a vegetable nature because, when burned, it smelled like pine. And Tacitus wrote in the year 98 AD: “Amber is indeed the juice of trees.” He was not so wrong. This viscous substance with a complex chemical composition is produced by vascular plants to prevent infections and cover wounds caused by wind or insect attacks. It is a resin that needs at least 40,000 years and particular environmental conditions to lose its volatile compounds and fossilize thanks to a polymerization process that forms a soft, shiny, odoriferous and colorful material that, at first glance, looks like a precious stone.

These organoleptic qualities — those that are captured with the senses — were precisely what made amber a luxury product and venerated among the upper classes as early as the Bronze Age. In the Iberian Peninsula, amber was scarce, unlike in the Baltic region or in Sicily, so the art of imitation emerged, as detailed in a recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The research, led by a group of archaeologists from the University of Seville, documents the development of the first human-made composite coating in history, a new material created from the combination of other materials, over a period ranging from 5,000 years ago to 3,000 years ago.

To make this replica, prehistoric craftsmen used a central core of shell or stone which they then covered with pine resin, beeswax and linseed oil, which gave it a characteristic orange colour. They then allegedly joined everything together with bone glue, made from boiled collagen and other animal remains.

Because it was a scarce raw material, amber has served archaeologists as an economic indicator of a region at a given time and of the movement of materials across a Europe that was just beginning to connect. This fake amber came to shake things up and force scientists to ask new questions, especially about how new social hierarchies began to operate a few thousand years ago. To date, more than 2,000 beads simulating amber have been found, spread across 15 sites.

Carlos Odriozola, a professor at the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Seville and co-author of the research work, notes that the first imitations were identified in Andalusia and Barcelona, and were made a thousand years apart. “There was a pattern that was repeated from one end of the peninsula to the other and maintained for a millennium, so we figure that forgery must be more common than we thought,” he says. Using infrared analysis techniques and computerized microtomography, they were able to determine the technological complexity of the imitation, quite unprecedented for that time. “This clear effort to replicate the characteristics of amber is proof of the value that the material had,” adds the expert.

“It was a time in history when appearances began to be very important,” says José Ángel Garrido, another researcher from the University of Seville who worked on the paper. “We have to take into account that many changes were taking place, and societies began to move from egalitarian to hierarchical structures where there was a leader who had to use certain elements to project a certain image,” he explains. Amber was one of these class indicators. The powerful displayed their strength through pendants, dresses, brooches, belts, knife handles and other ornaments, all made from fossilized resin. “It follows the same logic as someone who drives a Ferrari on the street today,” Odriozola explains. The leaders of that time began to distance themselves from the rest of society by using amber as a crown, but, as it was not abundant, they had to come up with another way.

Ancient recipes for amber

The rise of amber as a prestigious element has an explanation. Enrique Peñalver, a researcher at the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain, explains that humans are very visual animals. “Anything that is shiny or has particular or strange colors in nature immediately attracts our attention,” he says. That is why gold, variscite, fluorite, jade and amber quickly rose in the scale of human appreciation. “They stand out, if only because of the departure from the monotony generated by being surrounded by opaque and dull stones, which are the most common element of all,” he says.

Wherever amber has appeared in the world, it has been used for luxury purposes. Researchers therefore believe that this technical innovation for producing imitations came from the incipient elites, although they have not yet been able to determine this. “There are records of recipes for imitation amber from Roman times to the Middle Ages. We are now working on contextualizing this new record to place the recipe in time and space,” explains Odriozola. In other words, archaeologists want to confirm that these imitations were commissioned by the powerful to their craftsmen, something for which there is only indirect evidence. The researcher explains: “The way we know if they gave the same value to the original amber as to the imitations is by analyzing who wore these objects.” If, for example, remains of an individual wearing an amber accessory are found and paleo-diet analysis is applied, it can be established whether that person ate more meat than the rest of the population and thus suggest that they had a better social position.

The problem is that the fake amber beads have appeared scattered in different tombs, so it is not possible to know for sure who the ornaments belonged to. This, Garrido adds, has opened a new line of research. “It is about the archaeology of forgeries: everything that imitates or simulates a material that is very valuable today.”

Peñalver reflects: “The most surprising thing about all this work is realizing that human inventiveness has no limits and if something is scarce, an alternative is discovered and a new technique is applied.”

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