Definition
Theophrastus and Pytheas both discussed amber in the fourth century BCE. Pytheas' "On the Ocean," which is lost, was cited by Pliny, whose Natural History (which also contains the oldest recorded use of the word Germania)
At one day's sail from this territory is the Isle of Abalus, where in the spring, amber is thrown up by the waves and is an excretion of the sea in a concrete form. As well as that, the inhabitants use this amber as fuel and sell it. Pytheas claims that the Gutones are a people from Germany who live on the shores of an estuary of the Ocean called Mentonomon.
Given the abundance of amber, the island might have been one of the historically richest amber-producing regions in northern Europe, including Heligoland, Zealand, the coasts of Gdask Bay, the Sambia Peninsula, or the Curonian Lagoon. It is believed that there formerly were regular amber trade lines between the Baltic and the Mediterranean (known as the "Amber Road"). According to Pliny, the Germans exported amber to Pannonia, from which point the Veneti sold it elsewhere.
The National Archaeological Museum of Siritide at Policoro in the province of Matera (Basilicata) showcases significant surviving specimens of the amber work done by the ancient Italic peoples of southern Italy. Sicilian deposits provide the amber that was employed in antiquity, including at Mycenae and in the early history of the Mediterranean.
Origins
Amber is found in a variety of rocks, primarily those that are Cretaceous age or younger. Amber was formerly most often found on the Prussian shore west of Königsberg. There have been amber deposits there since at least the 12th century. The region still has over 90% of the world's extractable amber, It became the Kaliningrad Oblast after it was taken by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the USSR in 1946.