<P> Amber has been used as jewelry since the Stone Age, from 13,000 years ago . Amber ornaments have been found in Mycenaean tombs and elsewhere across Europe . To this day it is used in the manufacture of smoking and glassblowing mouthpieces . Amber's place in culture and tradition lends it a tourism value; Palanga Amber Museum is dedicated to the fossilized resin . </P> <P> Amber has long been used in folk medicine for its purported healing properties . Amber and extracts were used from the time of Hippocrates in ancient Greece for a wide variety of treatments through the Middle Ages and up until the early twentieth century . </P> <P> In ancient China, it was customary to burn amber during large festivities . If amber is heated under the right conditions, oil of amber is produced, and in past times this was combined carefully with nitric acid to create "artificial musk"--a resin with a peculiar musky odor . Although when burned, amber does give off a characteristic "pinewood" fragrance, modern products, such as perfume, do not normally use actual amber due to the fact that fossilized amber produces very little scent . In perfumery, scents referred to as "amber" are often created and patented to emulate the opulent golden warmth of the fossil . </P> <P> The modern name for amber is thought to come from the Arabic word, ambar, meaning ambergris . Ambergris is the waxy aromatic substance created in the intestines of sperm whales and was used in making perfumes both in ancient times as well as modern . </P>

How do insects or small animals become preserved in amber