Mine Every Monday - Amber

Jul 3, 2022

This week, what I want to introduce to you is the amber that was twisted back from the amber exhibition at the Taiwan Museum of Natural Science~

This week I'm going to introduce you to Amber that I never thought I'd have so soon.

Friends who follow my weekly mine series do not know if they have found it. I went to Taichung to play around in mid-June. The Taiwan Sapphire that I introduced to you last week was found in Taichung Park Jade Market.

If you want to see my introduction about Taiwan Sapphire, please click on my related article or the hyperlink above~

I went to the Natural Science Museum that I haven't been to for a long time

In fact, I didn’t go for any exhibition at the beginning, I just thought that I finally came to Taichung, so I had to make a day to revisit the itinerary that we, as people from Pingtung, looked forward to every summer vacation when we were young (because we can go out to Taichung) remote).
It was not until the entrance of the Science and Technology Museum that I learned that the cross-annual themed special exhibition " The Moment - Amber's Memory " of the Science and Technology Museum will debut on April 29 this year!!

This is the entrance to the Amber Exhibition

The name of the exhibition is derived from the fact that amber can encapsulate and encapsulate the flowers, plants, insects and ants that lived in the era in which it was formed, as if time were encapsulated in the moment when it was buried in the soil and solidified.
After people's excavation (or should I say disturbing?), the animals, plants, soil climate and even the situation at that time are decompressed to the age when this civilization has evolved to an already exquisite and excess for people to study or enjoy.

This one is a model of the amber in Jurassic Park.

In addition to introducing the knowledge of amber, such as types, ingredients, origin, methods of distinguishing authenticity and uses, there will also be 6 amber specimens produced in Taiwan, and one of them was discovered for the first time in Taiwan and is currently the only one. Amber with living creatures wrapped in it.
As for what kind of ancient creature is wrapped in it? Let’s sell a little here first. The exhibition period will be all the way to February 19 next year. Interested friends are welcome to participate in the grand event and come to Taichung Science Museum together. Let's play Amber!

At the end of the exhibition, there are two gashapon machines, you can twist an amber to take home for only 300 yuan.

There is a guarantee card in each capsule

According to the specimens on display and the staff, the amber in the gashapon machine has different values according to the biological specimens it wraps. The most expensive specimen can be worth 140,000 yuan, so don't twist it!!

Amber is the resin fossil of Pinus pine plants (such as five-leaf pine, two-leaf pine and black pine, etc.), and it has different colors according to its composition. For example, blue amber is so named because it contains a high fluorescent substance, which appears blue under the irradiation of ultraviolet light.

Blueberry is very expensive, super expensive

And beeswax is not as clear and transparent as other types because of its high content of succinic acid.

In addition, if the resin is buried in the soil, there have been some signs of fossils, and the time passed is not enough for it to form amber, we call it "koba".

Koba also retains a certain degree of resinous character, and the biological integrity it encapsulates may also be called amber high. Perhaps one day it can contribute to the study of evolution and make an important contribution.

The name "amber" is because the ancients believed that it was formed by the condensed soul of the tiger after the death of the tiger, so the original amber should be written as "tiger soul".

As early as the Neolithic Age, people used this resin as decorations, sacrificial utensils or even medicines and spices, and it is a very ancient organic gem.

Forty million years ago, there were large forests in northern Europe. The climate was warm then, and the resin trickled down from the ancestors of today's pine fir. After rapid burial, extrusion, and geothermal changes, the resin became fossilized, and the forest became the sea, the Baltic Sea today.

Therefore, the main amber producing areas in the world are concentrated on the coast of the Baltic Sea, and the output accounts for about 75%-85% of the total amber production.

Amber is also a good incense material. Common perfumes or scented candles are marked with amber. At present, I have not had the opportunity to obtain incense materials like this, but occasionally I am curious, whether the aroma of amber has the wildness before the birth of civilization in ancient times, the remnants of dinosaur life, and the geology it has experienced. What about changes, the torrent of time?

Maybe there will be a chance to try it later.