Amber Road

Prehistoric paths that carried Baltic amber south to the Mediterranean for more than 5,000 years.

Overview

Amber, fossilized resin prized for ornament and credited with healing powers, washed up along the Baltic and North Sea coasts and traveled south from the Bronze Age onward. Beads of Baltic amber reached Mycenaean Greece and even Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt. Under Rome the trade ran from the Vistula to Carnuntum on the Danube, and Nero reportedly sent a knight north to buy amber for gladiator games. Middlemen, Prussian tribes and later the Teutonic Order, kept the sources vague and margins fat. The overland lane faded as sea trade grew and local imitations spread, but the name survives on modern European tourist routes.