CHAPTER I. 



x THE use- of amber begins with the dawn of civilization. 

 The discovery of beads in the royal tombs at Mycenae and 

 at various places throughout Sardinia and the territory of 

 ancient Etruria, proves that trade in it existed in prehis- 

 toric times; while the identity in chemical constitution of 

 the amber ornaments of Mycenae and the Baltic amber 

 from the Tertiary formation of the Prussian Samland, the 

 coasts of southern Sweden and the northern Russian pro- 

 vinces, indicates the far distant source from which the 

 resin was anciently derived. 1 Who first brought the resin 

 from the Baltic Sea to the L,evant is an undetermined 

 question, since it is known to have come southward across 

 Europe by land as well as around the continent by water. 

 The Phoenicians those far-sighted and consummately 

 keen traders, whose commercial and maritime supremacy 

 is still unrivaled by that of any modern nation extended 

 their voyages past the gates of the world into the unknown 

 ocean in search of both the amber of the Northern Sea 

 and the tin of Cornwall; for to obtain the latter the makers 

 of bronze from all quarters flocked to the great metal 

 market of Sidon. Both commodities also came by way of 

 the Rhine * and the Rhone to Marseilles and across the 

 Alps to Etruria and chiefly to the valley of the Po, besides 

 elsewhere by other land routes, along all of which stores 

 of tin and amber have been found as they were ages ago 

 hidden when the caravans were attacked or fell victims to 

 the natural perils of the road. While these ways are 

 known to have existed, and the amber trade over them to 

 have been maintained before Rome or Carthage were 



1 Schliemann c Mycenae and Tiryns, 1876, 203, 245 ; Tiryns, 1886, 369. 

 Mmcox : Prehistoric Civilizations, 1894. 



ds) 



