Amber in British place names
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Burnham Market is an ancient settlement for amber trade.
Amber (brandstein in German, the "burning" stone or "burnstone") is found at the northern east coast of Norfolk near the town of Cromer. At a small distance west of Cromer a number of towns with the name of Burnham may be located. The Domesday Book from 1086 even mentions seven settlements Burnham on sea within a radius of two miles, but some of them have been swallowed by the North Sea, leaving today:
- Burnham Thorpe,
- Burnham Overy,
- Burnham Norton,
- Burnham Deepdale, und
- Burnham Market.
The towns are located at the sea near a large natural bay named Brancaster Bay. Burnham Thorpe is famous as the birthplace of admiral Nelson, but most of all these locations must have been marketplaces for “burn”-stones and the inhabitants once were earning money by trading amber.[citation needed]
Burnham Market even carries a market-attribute in its name.
Brancaster also carries another burning-sign in its name and these names indicated a link to amber trading. Brancaster named Branodunium also has been an important settlement at the time of Roman occupation. The period of time of the amber findings in Cromer is said to be 1600 – 600 before Christ and for this reason the names must be at least 2600 years old. The Brancaster harbour may have been in use for both exporting the Cromer or other British findings and importing Baltic amber.
The corresponding sea-port at the mainland may have been Antwerpen in Belgium, which is named "Amberes" in Spanish language, indicating amber as an important trading good at the time of foundation.
In a German periodical Karl Jülicher describes at least 4 locations of amber finds in Britain, all situated at the east coast of Britain and indicated at or at least nearest to the following locations:
- Cromer in Norfolk near the "seven" Burnham towns
- The Humber mouth to the North Sea
- Sunderland or Tynemouth at the southern border of Northumberland
- Burnmouth or Berwick-upon-Tweed at the northern border of Northumberland
These indications suggest reading Burnham Market as an amber trading settlement, Amber for Umber/Humber, understanding the Humber as the Amber-river and Northumberland as the northern amber-area.
There is also a River Amber in Derbyshire, which springs in Ashover and joins the River Derwent at Ambergate. It gives its name to the local government district and borough of Amber Valley.
[edit] External links
- Joannes Richter on amber (big PDF)
