I discovered at Poiana Ciresului - Piatra Neamt, in a layer dated to 19,000 years, a sample of amber 43 /33 / 8.5 mm. There are two sources that can be counted: the Baltic Sea and Romania with a modest outcrop. What kind of analysis considered being useful to show the source? I am interested in literature on the subject.
Thank you very much!
Spectroscopic analyses are the best way to evaluate the plant source of the resin: infrared spectroscopy is easy to perform, it will not give a precise plant source but the presence vs. absence of the "Baltic shoulder" can indicate the Baltic origin.
The most precise method is Py-GC-MS, which allows to identify molecules that are biomarkers of some plant families.
- Grimalt J. O., Simoneit B. R. T., Hatcher P. G. & Nissenbaum A. (1988) The molecular composition of ambers. Organic Geochemistry, 13, 677-690.
- Beck C. W. (1986) Spectroscopic investigation of amber. Applied Spectroscopy Reviews, 22, 57-110.
- Santiago-Blay J. A. & Lambert J. B. (2007 ) Amber’s botanical origins revealed. American Scientist, 95, 150-157.
- Lambert J. B., Santiago-Blay J. A. & Anderson H. M. (2008) Chemical signatures of fossilized resins and recent plant exudates. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 47, 9608-9616.
you can also run carbon, hydrogen and sulfur stable isotopes analyses on amber to show the origin (e.g., DOI 10.2478/v10003-009-0001-9)
Certanly late Prof Curt Beck has done quite a lot of work on amber.
NMR, Pyrolysis-GC and Pyrolysis-GCMS are the most successful methods to distinguish between different kinds of amber.
A very extensive amber classification study using solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy was published in 2002: Joseph B. Lambert and George O. Poinar, Amber: the Organic Gemstone, Acc. Chem. Res., 2002, 35 (8), pp 628–636
However, aging processes may hinder the determination of a clear origin. Since the early 90s, Ken B Anderson has published a series of articles on the nature and fate of natural resins in the geosphere together with various other authors. one of the more recent is from 2006, Ken B Anderson, The nature and fate of natural resins in the geosphere. XII. Investigation of C-ring aromatic diterpenoids in Raritan amber by pyrolysis-GC-matrix isolation FTIR-MS, Geochemical Transactions 2006, 7:2.
I wish you much success
This may also be of help, as well as the citations in it and papers that have cited it:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235246287_Local_Amber_in_a_Palaeolithic_Context_in_Cantabrian_Spain_the_Case_of_La_Garma_A
Article Local Amber in a Palaeolithic Context in Cantabrian Spain: t...
This may also be of help, as well as the citations in it. you can cite the following paper:
Dabolkar, S., & Kamat, N. M. (2017). Novel techniques to study ancient micro amber from tropical beach sand reveal a treasurehouse of exceptionally well preserved fossilized microfungi
Sujata, D., & Nandkumar, K. (2017). Novel Techniques to Study Ancient Micro Amber from Tropical Beach Sand Reveal a Treasurehouse of Exceptionally Well Preserved Fossilized Microfungi. bioRxiv, 207977.
Dabolkar, S., & Kamat, N. M. (2017). Fossilized microbial forms in Baltic and Goan amber: A comparative pioneer study.
Chicago
Carciumaru Marin
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