DOI: 10.33547/va.brz17.peb.8.4
Próba określenia pochodzenia przedmiotu bursztynowego z początków późnej epoki brązu / An attempt to determine the origin of an amber object from the early Late Bronze Age
by Lukáš Kučera 
, Jakub Slačálek , Karol Dzięgielewski
in: K. Dzięgielewski, Brzezie 17. Osada solowarska z późnej epoki brązu (Via Archaeologica. Źródła z badań wykopaliskowych na trasie autostrady A4 w Małopolsce), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Profil-Archeo, Krakowski Zespół do Badań Autostrad, 2025, pp. 353-357.
Within the settlement at Brzezie, site 17, Wieliczka District, southern Poland, two fragments of an semi-product or a lump of raw amber were found in the fill of feature 4391, located on the eastern periphery of the settlement belonging to the earlier phase (Hallstatt A–B1) (cf. Fig. 61 in Chapter 5; Plan I). The fragments are in the form of a cuboid block tapering wedge-like (Fig. 1; Pl. C:a).
From a functional perspective, the object could represent a fragment of a wedge-terminated pendant, an element of a necklace, or a preform of a cylindrical or biconical bead. However, neither macroscopic observation nor examination under an optical microscope revealed any clear traces of working, including
drilling. The fresh fracture surface, where the amber is darkened and internally fractured near the surface, may indicate some degree of thermal treatment intended to enhance the colour and to achieve a shimmering effect under light.
In recent years, vibrational spectroscopy techniques have been most commonly used for the analysis of amber samples. The most widely applied method is Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in the attenuated total reflectance (ATR) mode, owing to its speed and simplicity of measurement. Amber from the Baltic Sea region is characterized by a distinct absorption band in the range of 1161–1250 cm⁻¹, referred to as the so called “Baltic shoulder” (Beck et al. 1964; 1965). This characteristic feature was also detected in the analysed amber sample (Fig. 2). Another vibrational spectroscopy technique used in amber studies is Raman spectroscopy, which allows for the assessment of amber maturity based on the intensity ratio I₁₆₄₅/I₁₄₅₀. The band at 1645 cm⁻¹ is associated with the C=C stretching vibrations of methylene groups, while the band at 1450 cm⁻¹ corresponds to C–H deformation vibrations. Over time, the progressive disappearance of double bonds results in a decrease in the above-mentioned intensity ratio (Havelcová et al. 2016). Different regions of Baltic amber occurrence are characterized by varying I₁₆₄₅/I₁₄₅₀ ratios. Pagacz et al. (2019) emphasize that the degree of amber maturity is strongly influenced by the conditions under which it formed, such as temperature and pressure. As shown in Fig. 3, the studied amber sample exhibits a chemical composition (i.e. the I₁₆₄₅/I₁₄₅₀ ratio) most similar to ambers originating from the eastern sector of the Baltic Sea coast.
Although amber was a relatively rare raw material for the manufacture of ornaments in the Lusatian culture during the Late Bronze Age (Bukowski 2002; Chvojka et al. 2017), the vicinity of the studied site has yielded a concentration of such artefacts, primarily from richly furnished graves equipped with necklaces of glass and amber beads from Targowisko and Kraków-Bieżanów (Purowski 2014; 2018). If the amber object from Brzezie is interpreted as raw material or a semi-finished product intended for the manufacture of necklace elements, it could constitute evidence for its local final processing. However, demonstrating local working of amber raw material would require a much broader range of evidence than is currently available, including the presence of semi-finished products and production waste.