Otto Helm

Otto Helm (born February 21, 1826 in Stolp , † March 24, 1902 in Danzig ) was a German researcher.

Life

After graduating from Stolp High School, he studied pharmacy in Königsberg . From 1854 to 1874 he ran a pharmacy in Gdansk and was a member of the city council for several years. In 1892 he became a member of the committee of the West Prussian Provincial Museum in Danzig . Since 1865 he was already active in the Natural Research Society Danzig and belonged to the West Prussian Botanical-Zoological Association. Helm wrote numerous writings in which he took up topics from the fields of chemistry, the history of amber and the history of pharmacy.

Helm's amber research

Helm is best known for his amber research. He brought together a remarkable amber collection of more than 5000 pieces with organic inclusions, which after his death went to the West Prussian Provincial Museum in Danzig. Between 1877 and 1902 he published a large number of papers on the chemical and physical characteristics of amber and other fossil resins. His first descriptions of Gedanite , Glessit , Romanite , Birmit and other fossil resins date from this time . Some samples of the amber he examined have been in the Archaeological Museum of the City of Gdansk ( Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Gdańska ) since 1997 .

Due to his high reputation in this field, Heinrich Schliemann entrusted him with the analysis of the amber finds made in Mycenae in 1876 . Schliemann found an extraordinary number of artefacts in which amber had been processed in the magnificently furnished shaft graves in the citadel of Mycenae . Helm's job was to find out where the amber came from. Otto Helm used the method of dry distillation , which, when applied to amber, produces the following three components: 1. Crystalline succinic acid , 2. Liquid amber oil and 3. Solid rosin . He found out that the amber from Mycenae had its origin in the Baltic Sea region - it contained more than 3% succinic acid. According to a thesis put forward by Helm himself, Baltic amber always contains 3% to 8% succinic acid, while the content of succinic acid in other fossil resins is always below 3% or there is no succinic acid in the resins.

According to this classification made by Helm, the content of succinic acid was for a long time the only criterion on the basis of which the botanical or regional origin of amber was determined. This was also sufficient for the amber deposits known in antiquity. With the discovery of further amber occurrences, especially in the last few decades, and the emergence of modern research methods, it has been proven that amber from other regions and probably also from different botanical origins can contain succinic acid. Helm's method of determining the origin of fossil resins was then abandoned.

In addition to the artefacts from Mycenae, Helm also examined numerous amber finds from archaeological excavations in Italy and, not least , rekindled the discussion about the trade routes for amber in antiquity.

Writings by Otto Helm (selection)

• Otto Helm: Messages about amber. [various subtitled essays]. In: Writings of the Natural Research Society in Danzig , 1878–1882.

Literature about Otto Helm (selection)

• Izabela Gregorczuk-Stasiak: Otto Helms - Researcher of amber from the shaft graves at Mycenae. In: Bursztynisko . Volume 31, Gdańsk 2008. (Also the main source of this article)
• George F. Black: Amber an its origin. In: The American Mineralogist . Volume 10, 1919, pp. 130-131.
• A. Harding, H. Hughes-Brock: Amber in the Mycenaean World. In: The Annual of the British School at Athens . Volume 69, 1974, pp. 145-172.
• H. Schliemann: Mycènes. Paris 1897.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ B.Kosmowska-Ceranowicz: The history and present possibilities of Establishing of amber collection in Gdańsk. In Amber - views - opinions. Danzig, Warsaw 2006 (first publication of the article in 1998).