The pretext for talking to Aleksandra Harasiuk are "Marine Stories", the ongoing trip of Mateusz Waligóra along the Baltic Sea.
REKLAMADominik Szczepański: Ile kosztuje bursztyn?
Aleksandra Harasiuk, Międzynarodowe Stowarzyszenie Bursztynników: Rozbieżności są duże, bo bursztyn ma różne frakcje, inaczej wycenia się duże bryłki, a inaczej małe.As for jewelry, we are able to buy a modified amber from several dozen to several-hundred zlotys.Natural amber products cost several, tens of thousands of zlotys.Even more may cost inclusions, amber lumps in which something has survived.Such specimens stimulate our imagination, thanks to them we travel into the past.The most beautiful inclusion I saw is Gierłowska's lizard.You can admire her at the Amber Museum in Gdańsk.The phrase was found by Mrs. Gabriela Gierłowska on the Gdańsk beach.
Największe złoża bursztynu znajdują się nad Morzem Bałtyckim. Najwięcej - wydobywa się w obwodzie kaliningradzkim. A u nas?
We have huge decks, at the moment we know about 3580 tonnes, but only just over 12 tons are extracted a year.
Dlaczego?
Because the amber is at a depth of 60-120 meters, i.e. deep.Of course, it could be reached there, but nature could suffer.Today, only a few mines operate in Poland in Poland, although there were over 50 of them in the Kurpie alone.
In addition, it is estimated that 5-6 tonnes are collected per year, who walk on the beaches with cough, i.e. a special mesh in the autumn and winter season.They are waiting for storms that move the naval bottom, take ultraviolet flashlights and like long hours.There are entire cities living from amber on the Vistula Spit.When you read the story, we will find out that the lives of many villages were spinning around this fossil resin, many of us do not realize that they know how the burned amber smells, which is part of the incense used in the church.
Kopanie bursztynu jest legalne?
Fishing - yes, but the mines must have permits.So when we see someone who does it on our own, we must know that it works outside the law.In addition, it destroys the landscape - after such digging, huge funnels are created, nature is destroyed, the root system of trees, the animal can fall into the bottom and die in it.People dealing with this illegally are well organized, they often manage to outsmart the forest guards and the police.
On this occasion, I would like to say about the biggest challenge that the Baltic awaits in the near future.
To znaczy?
The wrecks of the starts that lie at its bottom can be unsealed at any time.
Jednym z nich jest "Franken", w którego zbiornikach może znajdować się nawet 5-6 mln litrów paliwa - mazutu.
We, as the International Amber Association, look at it through scientific and economic prism.We wonder what will happen to amber if the fuel gets into the sea.For us it will be a disaster, because amber will be contaminated in the shoreline.That is, the one who is collected by poaches.5-6 tons, i.e. 1/3 of the total amount of amber obtained in Poland.
And yet this is only our perspective.There are more important things - unknown amounts of fish will die, flora will die.Holidays by the sea will end, and many places living from tourism will lose their lives to life.And it is in the coastal voivodships that guests coming to rest for the first time have the opportunity to get acquainted with the "Baltic gold".
Wokół bursztynu narosło wiele legend, prawda?
Plenty.One of them says that amber is something that people living on the coast always had at their fingertips - they had fun with the cradle, they rose with amber under their armpits, died, hugging him to the chest, and then took it to the casket.Total Bujda.For centuries, amber was monopolized by magnates, made as a gift to people with high status - it was handed to kings, used as diplomatic gifts.No townsman, no craftsman had access to him.In medieval archives you can find a description of penalties that threatened for hiding amber.It was only in the last century that the amber products became publicly available.
Second thing - we are persecuted by hearts with scales inside.Do you knowSuch dark orange, cognac.Everyone thinks that this is a natural color of amber, and this is simply an effect that the manufacturer receives after modifications.It often happens that customers come to good galleries and explain to sellers that the amber they want to buy from them is a suspicious because there is no such color.
A potrafi pani powiedzieć, dlaczego uważamy, że bursztyn jest tak cenny? To dość krucha rzecz, w dodatku nawet nie kamień szlachetny.
It is a petable fossil resin.Amber was never a jewelry stone, it was only in the last century that we began to process it intensively.I think the value was assigned to him because of faith in his magical and medical properties.
Co o nim mówiono?
-When the various things.A great secret of amber: he comes out of the water and the ground, and immediately begins to age.Because it is oxidizing.People are doing everything to stop its beauty and color as long as possible, we already know how to keep it color a little longer than our lives, but the oxidation process itself cannot stop yet.Maybe someday we will come up with.For now, we can not even find a binder that thanks to which we could maintain it well and repair the defects.
People have been applying amber for centuries and claimed that they were feeling good energy.Medics recommended him to the sick, perhaps because he was something pulled out of the ground.He didn't shine, he was warm.A studio was discovered on the Żuła-Wach, in which evidence was found that amber for centuries was used as a talisman.This is confirmed by discoveries from other parts of the world.At the Amber Museum in Gdańsk you can see figurines with animal shapes, talismans that were to protect against evil, help in fighting, give happiness while hunting.In old centuries, the peoples inhabiting today's Morocco did not go out to the battlefield without an amber bead.I recently found out that the Christian church took over the rosary from Muslims, and Muslims used amber for the production of beads.The Teutonic Knights took care of with us, and the beads were, of course, amber.
At the Austrian court, when someone had problems with the liver, he was recommended to put the amber lump on the table, staring at it and simultaneously drinking red wine.There are applications in which it was stated that women were getting amber in the last phase of delivery.I hope that they did not hurt his hands, because the amber can burst, it is fragile like gypsum.
He only came to the widespread use of "medical" in the 20th century, when it began to be made of pipes and barrels for smoking, saying that thanks to him it is not so unhealthy.Then jewelry began to be made of it.
Scientific knowledge has passed a huge jump, but even today many people hope that amber worn around the neck will help for thyroid problems.Angela Merkel often appears with such a necklace.I wonder if he believes in his power.
Co dziś mówi nauka na jego temat?
Still not much, maybe it will change soon, because the research on the properties of virus and bactericidal amber acid is conducted by a young Pole, Igor Kaczmarczyk.It's nice that someone from us is examining it, anyway, amber is our showcase abroad.I recently talked to representatives of our pavilion at Expo in Dubai.They said that they recruited people from the Arabian Peninsula to work and if Poland associated with something, it was with amber.
Półwysep arabski jest dużym rynkiem eksportu polskiego bursztynu?
Arab markets are very rich, women spend huge amounts of jewelry there, but it is difficult for amber to be accepted, because the decorations are to shine in the sun.And the amber does not shine.
China is the main direction of Polish amber exports.
Dlaczego?
Amber was to be one of the seven attributes of the Buddha and the Chinese to write him magical power and are able to pay huge money for natural amber.They love those of yellow color.And it is not that they do not know amber, in the Fushun region they have a huge mine, but it is this from our sea that has great value for them.Not only for them, the amber has its deposits in Burma, Lebanon, Domini -Canks, but it is the Baltic one who is characterized by a very nice color palette - from yellow, through yellow -haired, to dark orange and due to the high content of amber acid, it is different.There is evidence that the Baltic amber has already been sent to China by 8 thousand.years ago.
Kto oprócz Chińczyków kupuje nasz bursztyn?
-Whines and long, long nothing.And then standard Polish export markets - Scandinavia, Germany, Western European countries.And the United States, which was fascinated by amber jewelry after the "Jurassic Park".It was an explosion of popularity.The film shows how to recreate a dinosaur - a DNA of a mosquito taken from the blood was used, which bitten the dinosaur, and then the resin was dripping at him.Millions of years later it was excavated in the form of amber.Funny, because no one has been able to reproduce DNA so far due to the fact that insects were found in amber. No i też dla-tego, że ostatnie dinozaury żyły 66 mlnyears ago, a bursztyn bałtycki ma "tylko" 40 mln lat.An interesting fact is that in the film "Jurassic Park" DNA was broken from a mosquito with feathered tentacles, which is only a feature of males, and it is known that only females suck blood.
This is how it is that our consciousness is unfortunately not shaped by scientists or historians, but a sensation that overflows pop culture.We also have a problem with this, because the amber in the minds of Poles for years was limited to a mosquito embedded in it, or to grandmother balls brought from the sanatorium at the seaside.This is slowly changing, but knowledge about contemporary projects is still very weak.
Często piszą do pani ludzie, twierdząc, że wiedzą, gdzie jest bursztynowa komnata?
Very rarely.For this, the media ask without interruption.
I co im panią odpowiada?
These are generally specific questions.E.g."Is it true that divers who penetrate another wreck in the Baltic Sea have a chance to find a chamber?".Then, together with our experts, we check the clues.We start with history, trying to determine how much it is like that the amber chamber could find a ship.We also reach for learning - even if the treasure rests somewhere at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, does the processed amber from which the chamber a was made has a chance to survive 80 years in boxes under water?Even if, after removing it will not be in good shape.
W ostatnich latach pojawiły się jakieś nowe tropy?
Recently, the book "The true story of the Amber Chamber and Erich Kocha" by Ireneusz Iwański was created, in which you can read about the fate of one of the Gauleiters of East Prussia.On the pod-of the information read there, you can suppose that even if someone had hidden the amber chamber, he definitely did not want to find it.
Istnieją inne bursztynowe skarby, o których krążą legendy?
- Throne of Leopold and Habsburg from the 17th century.We don't know much about him, he was certainly a king's fantasy about the fact that the king could do anything.The throne was to be covered with tiles, some of them have survived and you can find them in German museums, but there is a lack of throne drawing.The search is ongoing, the Germans are very fascinated by this story.
There is also a legend about the amber crown of Jan III Sobieski, which he was supposed to get from Gdańsk residents, but there is no more accurate information.Perhaps there was no crown, because it is difficult for the king to accept the royal insignium from ordinary townspeople.Perhaps the crown was a small amber chandelier or "lace", as the rosary is sometimes called.
There may be plenty of treasures, we don't even know what museums have in the facilities.And who knows what is hidden in private collections.
