Between the third and second millennium B.C, trade networks crisscrossed the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe moving amber, a rare and valuable commodity, across the continent. Now researchers say some of that amber was actually clever fakes. They suspect the counterfeit gems may have been used to swindle wealthy buyers.

“This is the first time that the imitation of a very valuable material is recorded in European Prehistory,” said Carlos Odriozola, an archaeologist at the Univers