The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber. As one of the waterways and ancient highways, for centuries the road led from Europe to Asia and back, and from northern Africa to the Baltic Sea.
An important raw material, amber was transported from the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts overland by way of the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to Italy, Greece, the Black Sea, and Egypt thousands of years ago, and long after.
In Roman times, a main route ran south from the Baltic coast in Prussia through the land of the Boii (modern Czech Republic and Slovakia) to the head of the Adriatic Sea (modern Gulf of Venice). The Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun had Baltic amber among his burial goods, and amber was sent from the North Sea to the temple of Apollo at Delphi as an offering. From the Black Sea, trade could continue to Asia along the Silk Road, another ancient trade route.
The Old Prussian towns of Kaup and Truso on the Baltic were the starting points of the route to the south. In Scandinavia the amber road probably gave rise to the thriving Nordic Bronze Age culture, bringing influences from the Mediterranean Sea to the northernmost countries of Europe.
Sometimes the Kaliningrad Oblast is called the Янтарный край, which means "the amber area".
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Amber roads connect amber finding locations to customer sites in Europe, in the Middle East regions and in the Far East.
The shortest (and possibly oldest) road avoids alpine areas and led from the Baltic coastline (Estonia) through Poland, Silesia, passed the Moravian Gate, followed the river Morava to Slovakia, where it crossed the Danube to Austria near Carnuntum, heading southwards down to Slovenia and crossed it westward to reach Aquileia at the Adriatic coast. One of the oldest directions of the last stage of the Amber Road to the south of Danube, noted in the myth about the Argonauts, used Sava and Kupa rivers in Croatia ending with short continental road from Nauportus (Brod na Kupi) to Tarsatica (Trsat, Rijeka) at the coast of Adriatic.[1]
Several roads connected the North Sea and Baltic Seas, especially the city of Hamburg to the Brenner Pass, proceeding southwards to Brindisi in Italy and Ambracia (Greece). (See map at right)
The Swiss region indicates a number of alpine roads, concentrating around the capital city Bern and probably originating from the borders of the Rhône River and the Rhine.
A small section, including Baarn, Barneveld, Amersfoort and Amerongen, connected the North Sea with the Lower Rhine.
A small section, led southwards from Antwerp and Bruges to the towns Braine-l’Alleud and Braine-le-Comte, both originally named "Brennia-Brenna". The route continued by following the Meuse River towards Bern in Switzerland.
Three routes may be identified leading from an amber finding region or delta at the mouth of River Openia towards Bresse and Bern, crossing the Alps to Switzerland and Italy.
Routes connecting amber finding locations at Ambares (near Bordeaux), leading to Béarn and the Pyrenees. Routes connecting the amber finding locations in northern Spain and in the Pyrenees were a trading route to the Mediterranean Sea.
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