The Amber Road: International Trade in the Ancient World

Baltic Empire

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Amber has been used as a currency in the Baltic, ever since the Neolithic Era. During the Bronze Age, a trade network opened up between the Baltic and Mediterranean, the northeners exchanging their amber for bronze: the material with which to advance their societies. So too would the road transfer cultural and religious trends. This is a video on how concepts deemed relatively modern to us, like international trade and currency, would appear considerably older. 

Sources: 

Stenen som flyter och brinner - Åke Dahlström 

Leif Brost Finlands Historia - Torsten Edgren, Lena Törnblom 

Amber in the Ancient Near East - Graciela Gesto Singer 

The Balts and Amber - Eugenijus Jovaiša 

Connected Histories: the Dynamics of Bronze Age Interaction and Trade 1500–1100 BC - Kristian Kristiansen and Paulina Suchowska-Ducke 

Prehistoric Routes between Northern Europe and Italy Defined by the Amber Trade - J.M De Navarro

EXCHANGE OF AMBER IN NORTHERN EUROPE IN THE III MILLENNIUM BC AS A FACTOR OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS - Alexander Zhulnikov 

Image sources: 

By Emmanuel Boutet - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... 

By Anders L. Damgaard - www.amber-inclusions.dk - Baltic-amber-beetle - This file was derived from: Baltic amber inclusions - Ant (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)8.JPGTransferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Common Good using CommonsHelper.(Original text: Work of Baltic-amber-beetle), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... 

0:00 Stone Age Amber  

7:31 The First Amber Roads  

12:44 The Roman Amber Road  

15:05 Conclusion  

17:07 gib monies