Baltic Amber Road

Type Object Region Baltic Sea Time c. -500–1600

Network of land and sea trade routes since antiquity carrying Baltic amber to Central Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea world.

Timeline

c. -500–1200Baltic Amber Coast · Amber CoastSince Roman times amber was shipped to the Mediterranean via the Elbe, Oder, and sea routes; after the Teutonic Order controlled Prussia's amber-producing areas in the Middle Ages, trade routes converged on Hanseatic ports.
c. 1331–1340Gdansk · GdanskHanseatic merchants used cogs to transship raw and finished amber via Gdansk and Riga to Bruges, Novgorod, and the southern Russian steppe trade routes; amber trade became one of the pillars of Baltic commerce.
c. 1500–1600Konigsberg · PrussiaThe opening of new sea routes and American competition caused the traditional Amber Road to decline relatively, but the Konigsberg area still maintained regional amber processing and exports.

Amber Trade Routes of the Ancient World — Encyclopedia Britannica (2024) https://www.britannica.com/topic/amber
The Hanse in Medieval and Early Modern Europe — Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz (2013)