Exhibitions
Amberos (Sept 2007 - Sept 2009)
This exhibition its dedicated to all the amberos (the miners) and everyone else involved in the transformations of raw amber to the beautiful amber jewelery we see today. Nature has given us amber, in it’s present form. From the miners that work in extreme conditions, to the artisians, to the scientific community all over the world, who without their help and knowledge, we would not be able to enjoy the beauty of amber today.
The Dominican Republic is located in the Caribbean in the island of Hispaniola, and the island is divided between 2 counties. The Western 1/3 of the island is Haiti, while the Eastern 2/3 of the island is the Dominican Republic.
In the northwest region of the country, is an area called Cordillera Oriental. There are two mines there, called La Medita and Ya Nigua near El Valle. Amber is not found in the Cordillera Central region.
The majority of Dominican amber comes from the central region of Cordillera Septentrional. The exploration of this region was during the 1960’s by two men named Sanderson and Farr. The original mines classified were in Santiago and Puerto Plata.
These mines include Palo Quemado (the first mine opened during the 1940’s) , Palo Alto, Juan de Nina, La Toca, Los Cacaos, Los Aguitos, La Cumbre, Los Higos, La Bucara, Pescado Bobo, El Naranjo, Las Auyamas, El Arroyo, Aguacate, Carlos Diaz y Villa Trina.
Sanderson and Farr concluded their studies that the amber in this region was formed by deposits in rock sedimentaria del Terciario
There is a mine in Palo Alto which is 15 meters deep. After digging through meters of clay and mud, the amber is finally located within the gray sandstone that lies beneath the mud and clay.
The mines of El Valle have a similar situation. The base of the mine is composed of a layer of sandstone, which varies from 4 to 12 meters in width, depending on the terrain. Going up the levels, sandstone disappear and appear layers of hardened mud, clay and muddy clay. Amber is in the very upper layers of clay carbon
Other studies by Baroni Urbani and Saunders, based on the flora and fauna, indicate Dominican amber deposits of an age corresponding to the bottom of the First Eocene (20-25 million years ago).
Samples of amber from different mines in the country and vary color and hardness, suggest a variation of the age. A study using a nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to reveal a difference in the exo-methylene group between the parts of several amber regions.
This and other studies, extrapolation of the dates obtained indicate that the age of Dominican amber ranges from 15-17 million years ago (Middle Miocene) for the amber found in the eastern region of Cotui-Bayaguana, to 33-40 million years for the amber mine in La Toca (Eocene-Oligocene boundary).
