Theophrastus discussed amber in the 4th century BC, as did Pytheas (c. 330 BC), whose work “On the Ocean” is lost, but was referenced by Pliny the Elder (23 to 79 AD), according to whose The Natural History (in what is also the earliest known mention of the name Germania):
Pytheas says that the Gutones, a people of Germany, inhabit the shores of an estuary of the Ocean called Mentonomon, their territory extending a distance of six thousand stadia; that, at one day’s sail from this territory, is the Isle of Abalus, upon the shores of which, amber is thrown up by the waves in spring, it being an excretion of the sea in a concrete form; as, also, that the inhabitants use this amber by way of fuel, and sell it to their neighbors, the Teutones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/seeking-the-origins-of-amber-12725192/
No comments:
Post a Comment