Lebanon amber
Under Lebanon Bernstein (Bernstein also Lebanese) is under Cretaceous amber understood predominantly in Mount Lebanon is found. The name Libanit was suggested in a publication from the second half of the 19th century , but it did not catch on .
Sites and age of amber
The vast majority of the around 300 known sites are in the Lebanon Mountains, which run through central Lebanon from north to south, and in Anti-Lebanon . It is assumed that the amber is on primary deposit. The sediments containing amber are predominantly of the Lower Cretaceous Age ( Valanginium to Albium , approx. 130 to 115 million years old); individual sites belong to the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) and the Cenomanian (lowest level of the Upper Cretaceous). The amber-bearing formations go beyond the borders of Lebanon and continue at least in northern Israel and on the Syrian coast. Occurrences of the same age are also known from Jordan. These amber deposits from the Middle East are sometimes referred to as Levantine amber in their entirety .
Botanical origin of the resin
Both botanical inclusions in the amber itself and plant fossils in the amber-bearing sediments indicate a resin donor from the Araucariaceae or Cheirolepidiaceae family . Investigations with modern physical methods ( infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ) essentially confirm this finding.
Use of the amber
Some authors take the view that the Phoenicians already knew and traded amber from the area of today's Lebanon and the Syrian Mediterranean coast. Since the Lebanon amber is very brittle and it is therefore not suitable for the production of jewelry and handicraft objects, it should be used after the Baltic amber became known in the Mediterranean region of antiquity (around the 13th to 16th centuries BC) have been replaced and in turn have been forgotten. It was not until the 19th century that the amber deposits were mentioned again in various reports. Lebanon amber is not used commercially today.
Scientific importance
The first scientific reports on amber deposits in Lebanon were published in the last quarter of the 19th century. The real value of Lebanon amber lies in its very well preserved organic inclusions. These are organisms (mostly arthropods ) that inhabited a tropical or subtropical and very humid forest area in the north of the Urcontinent Gondwana . Fossil evidence of rural dwellers from this period and area, particularly arthropods, is very rare. Quite a few taxa of Lebanon amber are among the oldest known fossils of their respective group. Less than twenty of the 300 known amber sites have returned pieces of amber with organic inclusions. Of the almost 10,000 registered organic inclusions so far, more than 7,000 come from amber from only three sites scattered around the country, but almost of the same age (see map).
Web links
literature
- K. Bandel, R. Shinaq, W. Weitschat: First insect inclusions from the amber of Jordan (Mid Cretaceous). Mitt. Geol.-Paläont.Inst. Univ. Hamburg, issue 80, Hamburg 1997, pp. 213-223.
- D. Azar et al .: Lebanese Amber . In: D. Penney (Ed.): Biodiversity of fossils in amber from the major world deposits . Manchester 2010.
- George O. Poinar Jr .: Life in amber . Stanford 1992.
- G. and B. Krumbiegel: Amber - Fossil Resins from all over the world . Wiebelsheim 2005.