Dr Mara Kalnins is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College and formerly University of Cambridge Reader in Modern English Literature.Latvian by origin, her latest bookThe Ancient Amber Routes: Travels from Rga to Byzantiumexplores the links between the Baltic and the cultures of the Mediterranean and Black Seas... when the ancestors of the Latvians and Lithuanians reached the shores of the northern sea around 2500 BC, they found the source of a substance which was already a powerful symbol in their art and religionthe sun-stone, amber. In time the entire coastline stretching from the Jutland peninsula to the Gulf of Rga became known asAmberlandand amber from these shores was carried to the great trading centres and cities of the ancient world. But long before recorded history long-distance trade routes had existed, for all peoples desired this magical stone, and archaeological evidence points to routes linking the Baltic and the Mediterranean as far back as Neolithic times