Ambkr AM) Jkt in Ancient Biriai.s. 109 



early peri(xi for amulets and ineclicinal purposes. More or 

 less shapeless pieces of roug^li Amber, marked with circular 

 depressions, have been found in Prussia, Schles\\ig--Holstein, 

 and Denmark in deposits of the Stone Age. These depres- 

 sions are sometimes regularly disposed, at other times irre- 

 gularly, and seem intended to imitate similar depressions 

 found on large stones and rocks, often the work of man's 

 hand, but occasionally the result of natural causes. 'Ihe 

 former points to a religious significance connected with the 

 cup and ring-marks in Stone Age Burials. Hoerne's 

 opinion is that they marked the resting place of the spirit 

 or spirits believed to animate the stone, and hence it is 

 probable that the Amber fragments were used as talismans 

 and iimulets.s To the ancient Greek poets the grains of 

 Amber were the tears annually shed over the death of their 

 brother Phaeton by the Heliades, after grief had metamor- 

 phosed them into poplars growing on the banks of the 

 l-lridamus. In Norway Amber, car\ ed into animal forms, 

 has been found in tumuli at Indersoen. These curious 

 objects were worn as amulets, and the peculiar forms were 

 supposed to enhance the power of the material, giving it 

 special virtues. It is interesting here to note what is said 

 by Sir Thomas Brown in his Reli^io Mt'Liici on this subject : 

 " A Roman urn preserx ed by Cardinal Farn^se, whose famil\ 

 was celebrated by the protection it gave to art, contained 

 besides a great number of gems with heads of gods and 

 goddesses, nu elephant of Amber.'" In a previous paragraph 

 he remarks : — " Xow that they (the dead) accustomed to 

 l)ury with them things wherein they delighted, or which 

 were dear to them, either as farewells unto all pleasure or 

 \ain apprehension that they might use them in the other 

 world, is testified by all antiquity."^ 



Walter Johnson in his Byways iti British Archceology 

 says he is inclined to put the Amber found in British barrows 

 in the shape of beads in a special class. It shielded the li\ ing 



• 5 Curious Lore of Pierioiis Stoties, by George F. Kunz, (,)iiel)ec 

 p. 376. 



6 Browne's l{,li(ii,, Medlri. p. l-l'i. Temple Classics Kd.. l><f»7. 



