Amber, in this text, uses vivid sentences to explain how amber is formed, and also mentions how small animals are encased in amber.
So, what exactly is amber? Simply put, amber is the fossilized resin of the coniferous family.
Of course, if it is only a fossil, it is not so unusual, and the biggest feature of amber, in addition to crystal clear and bright color, its own antiseptic properties are one of the most valuable values of amber.
For example, the world's largest piece of amber contains a complete chick, which is 100 million years old, and the chicks inside are still lifelike.
There are many similar ambers, although they have experienced tens of millions of years, but without exception, the small animals inside are very well preserved, which is enough to show that amber has an unparalleled advantage in antiseptic.
So the question is, since amber has such good antiseptic properties, why didn't the ancients use it as a material for embalming corpses? In fact, the ancients did not think of this idea, but using amber to embalm human corpses is really powerless, to put it bluntly, it is impossible to do it.
Amber is not only sought after in modern times, but also a very precious item in ancient times.
According to records, at the earliest time, the ancients' perception of amber was somewhat mythical, and it was generally believed that amber was transformed by the spirit of the tiger after its death.
There is also a saying that amber is the "tears of the tiger", in short, it is related to the tiger, hence the name "amber".
Under this cognition, the ancients attached great importance to amber, and even in ancient times, many people believed that amber had the function of seeking good fortune and avoiding evil, and calming the nerves.
In addition, the ancient kings also attached great importance to amber, and even in many dynasties, the emperors wore the pearls, there was amber.
Of course, these are all conclusions reached by the ancients with a low level of knowledge about amber, which, according to modern science, is actually a fossilized piece of resin.
Of course, although amber is a fossil resin, it is not formed casually, and in addition to a long period of time, it also needs to be based on many key factors such as time and location.
To put it simply, it's about the right time, the right place, and the right external conditions.
First of all, there must be trees that can exud resin, and this kind of tree is not any tree, but only trees such as coniferous trees, Juniaceae, and Araucariae.
Secondly, there needs to be the right weather, that is, the weather should be hot, and if the temperature is not high, then the trees will not secrete resin.
Also, at the moment when the resin is secreted, a small animal or insect passes under the tree, and it happens to be hit by the falling resin.
Only then can the critter or insect lose its ability and then be encapsulated in layers of resin that continues to drip off.
After that, this resin ball, which includes small animals or insects, undergoes the vicissitudes of life, during which there may be crustal movements, erosion, sedimentation, etc., until it is buried deep underground, and then after tens of millions of years of burial, it finally forms a crystal clear amber.
The above items can be said to be indispensable, and if any of the conditions are not met, amber cannot be formed.
In the amber formed, the small animals or insects that are wrapped in it, although they have gone through tens of millions of years, or even hundreds of millions of years, are still lifelike when they are discovered.
Once in Myanmar, a famous amber producing region, scientists have found the oldest piece of amber to date, in which a complete chick is hidden, and according to research, this piece of amber is nearly 100 million years old.
Not only that, in 2018, also in Myanmar, scientists from many countries announced that a small snake from 99 million years ago was found in another piece of ancient amber, and this snake is still an unknown species.
In addition, in the United Kingdom, an English man named Collingwood, one day while walking in the mountains and forests of Kent, accidentally found a special stone the size of a coin, and when he picked it up and looked at the sunlight, he found that there was a complete spider in the stone.
And when he took the strange stone to the relevant institutions for identification, the experts told him that it was a piece of amber that was more than 40 million years old.
There are many such examples, basically for naturally formed amber, hundreds of millions of years are not a problem at all, and the small animals or small insects and other corpses in these amber, without exception, are very well preserved.
It can be seen that amber has great advantages in embalming, otherwise it will not make the small animals or insects wrapped in it still complete and lifelike after thousands or even nearly 100 million years of time.
So, the first question is, why does amber have such good antiseptic properties?
We all know that whether it is insects or small animals like birds, they are called living beings, and the so-called living beings are, in short, living organisms with kinetic energy.
Since it is a living organism, no matter what form it takes, the main part of its composition is what we often call organic matter.
In the same way, the reason why living organisms such as birds or insects will gradually decay after the disappearance of life is because the organic matter or organism structure in their bodies is destroyed little by little by the breeding microorganisms.
There are many types of microorganisms, such as space microorganisms and marine microorganisms according to the environment, and prokaryotic microorganisms and eukaryotic microorganisms according to cell structure.
But no matter what kind of microorganism it is, there are three essential key conditions for it to survive and thrive in large numbers.
First, the appropriate oxygen content, second, the appropriate nutritional conditions, and third, the appropriate ambient temperature.
These three points are the necessary living conditions for all forms of microorganisms, and without these three conditions, then microorganisms cannot survive and reproduce, let alone destroy organic matter and cause it to decay.
On the other hand, if we look at amber, as mentioned earlier, the essence of amber is the resin secreted by trees, and one of the characteristics of resin is that it can isolate the air from the outside world through the viscous sap.
Therefore, when a small animal or insect is encased in resin, it loses the ability to breathe air, which causes death, and similarly, microorganisms do not have the right oxygen content, so they cannot reproduce and destroy the carcasses of these animals and insects.
Since it is impossible to reproduce and destroy, the carcasses of these birds or insects will naturally be preserved.
In addition to the fact that oxygen is sequestered, there is another reason why microorganisms cannot destroy corpses, and that is the main components of resin, namely pinene and ether, etc.
The biggest characteristic of these substances is that they are easy to volatile, and at the same time of their volatilization, they will also take away the water in the organism, and without water in the organism, its original nutrients will be lost.
Without nutrients, microbes cannot survive and thrive.
Therefore, two of the three basic conditions for the survival of microorganisms are cut off by resin, and the loss of these two conditions is like a fish leaving the water and humans losing air, and the result is naturally unable to survive and cause damage.
Therefore, the small animals or insects in the amber can be preserved intact, and no matter how long it has passed, at least the form will remain as it was when it was originally encased.
This is the reason why the creatures in amber do not decay, and it is precisely because of this that naturally occurring amber has a higher value.
Amber like the one we mentioned earlier has a high research value because it contains complete organisms, and it is through these thousands or even hundreds of millions of years ago that modern scientists can have the opportunity to understand the organisms of that era.
In addition to the high research value, this kind of amber wrapped in living things is also ridiculously valuable, after all, the formation of amber is an accidental event, so the older it is, the larger the small animal inside, and the higher the value.
The largest piece of amber in the world is the aforementioned piece of amber with a whole chick in it, measuring 59 centimeters in length, 19 centimeters in thickness, 48 centimeters in width, and weighing up to 19.2 kilograms.
The value of such a large piece of amber is also extremely expensive, according to the data, this piece of amber is worth as much as 250 million.
And back to the question itself, since amber can preserve the corpses of these creatures for tens of millions of years without decaying, why didn't ancient people use amber as a embalming material for corpses? In other words, why not wrap the corpses in their entirety and not decay for tens of millions of years?
Theoretically speaking, this anti-corrosion method is absolutely feasible, but it also stays in theory, and in practice, it is almost impossible to do.
Why? There are two external conditions that limit this approach, one is "fast" and the other is "slow".
Let's start with fast, this fast refers to the speed at which human corpses decompose too quickly.
After death, the body changes rapidly, and this change begins from the moment it stops breathing, and it is constantly changing every minute and every second.
First of all, at the same time as the human death, the metabolism in the human body stops, and the body temperature generally starts to drop after three to four hours.
At the same time, as the blood stops flowing, the muscles lose the tightness and elasticity of the time they were living, and they begin to slowly become relaxed, and the joints become very soft, which is the best time to "tidy up and put on clothes".
After one to two hours, the body will start to stiffen from soft, and because the body is stiff, the hair will also stand on end, which is why the hair looks longer after death.
After this, the whole person will become more and more stiff, and at the same time, the skin will start to darken due to the blood clotting in the body.
At this time, the human body will appear in a mild state of decay, and if appropriate measures are not taken, such as freezing, then this decay will gradually expand.
The reason for decay is that the microorganisms mentioned above are working, and microorganisms will start from the body, gradually decompose the human body, and finally completely decompose all organic matter on the human body from the inside out.
According to modern medical research, after death, if there are no corresponding measures, the human body will rot within 72 hours at most, and if the outside temperature is hot, then this time will be shorter.
In other words, if there is no external intervention, the human body decays quickly, and the best and fastest way to stop decaying is to freeze the body.
However, in ancient times, there were no freezing measures like modern ones, although there were ice storage or ice cellars, but there was no corresponding technology, so it was still impossible to prevent the human body from gradually decaying.
Even if the ancients had the conditions for frozen storage, they could temporarily freeze the corpse to slow down its decay, but it is too difficult to find enough resin to wrap the human body in a short period of time, which is the "slow" mentioned above.
In nature, we have also seen trees such as pine secrete resin, and its uniform characteristic is that it secretes very slowly, and at the end of the day, it can probably secrete a little resin.
Compared to insects and birds, the human body is undoubtedly huge, so it takes a long time to reach the amount of resin that can completely envelop the human body.
But during this time, the human body decays extremely quickly, and there is simply not a lot of time to wait for a sufficient amount of resin to form.
So, can you collect the resin in advance and apply it as soon as the person dies? The answer is no, because once the resin starts to solidify, it becomes very hard.