20 August 2007 - 23:30The Rock that Floats

The confusion arises as follows:

[…] One finds the amber in the sea of India, but no one knows where it comes from. One only knows that the best Amber is the one found at Berbera (East Coast of Africa) and up to the ends of the land of the Zang, and also at Sihr and its surroundings. That amber has the shape of an egg and is gray. The people of that region go to find it, riding on camels during the moon-lit nights; they follow the coasts. They ride camels who are trained for that and who know how to look for amber on the coast. When the camel finds a piece of amber, it kneels down and its owner goes to collect it.

One also finds pieces of amber floating on the water of a considerable weight. Sometimes those pieces are really big. […] One can find it among the perfume makers at Baghdad and Basra. The piece of amber which does not have the bad smell is extremely pure.

— Abu Zaid al Hassan from Siraf & Sulaiman the Merchant, Travels in Asia, 851 AD

Reading this ancient travel-report, anyone marginally familiar with amber will note several odd discrepancies. No one knows where it comes from? Found at the East Coast of Africa? Shape of an egg and is gray? Camels find it? Perfume makers? Bad smell?

After a brief logical consideration, anyone will conclude that the amber mentioned here is something entirely different than our beloved Amber – that yellow-golden-brown-colored fossil resin.

Indeed it is. What Abu Zaid was speaking of was of course ambergris, which is, bluntly put, ‘sperm whale vomit’. It is an oily perfumed substance secreted by the sperm whale and cast up on the shore, where it would then be found by the… erm.. camels. Our English word ‘amber’ derives from the old Arabic word ‘anbar () and refers quite obviously to this waxy but very valuable substance and not to the fossil resin. Puts the usage of ‘Amber’ as a female first name in shocking contrast, doesn’t it? Since fossilized amber was initially found on the shores much like ambergris, the linguistic confusion was complete. In addition, translated ancient documents, particularly those from Pliny the Elder’s work Naturalis historia may also pertain to the origin of the term amber as applied to the fossil resin (for a more complete etymology of the word ‘amber’, click here).

So besides this dodgy whale upchuck, are there any other types of gray Amber that float?

Now, it’s a well known fact that amber floats in saltwater. But with all the unique forms of amber that are found – Blue Amber, Insect Inclusions, Green Amber, Bony Amber, White Amber, Cognac Amber, etc – here is yet another one: Foamy Amber.

It can be classified alongside White Amber, Bony Amber and Cognac Amber, since their origin seems to be of a similar nature. The turbidity which is the key factor in defining these names given to amber is not the result of any chemical, or the affect of any inclusion trapped in the resin. The turbidity is a result of thousands of tiny air bubbles held in the amber. The size and density of the air bubbles results in different shading. The size of the air bubbles range between 0.00017 mm - 0.02 mm. The smaller air bubbles packed densely together, about 9,000,000 per square millimetre produces the bastard forms of amber.

Amber Collector Garry Platt — http://www.gplatt.demon.co.uk/properti.htm

Dominican Foamy Amber is probably of a similar origin. Its appearance is a brown-gray, very light mass, reminding more of a fossilized sponge than of amber. It almost floats on normal water due to its high content of air bubbles, yet still can be nicely polished. How all the air got in there is a matter of speculation. There is little information as to the formation of Foamy Amber, except that it must have developed pre-fossilization involving air, liquid sap and possibly water. This find is very rare in the Dominican Republic, since amber with such extreme air-bubble inclusions are mostly found in the Baltic. But it does make it appearance and is easily distinguishable from Baltic amber by its gray-brown color and spongy look. It is this uniqueness only found here on this hurricane-battered island that makes it a much prized collector’s item, sought after by many.