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本帖最后由 德道 于 2010-10-30 22:21 编辑
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2 m) P+ l: ]- y; t6 j) VBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin ( r2 h- `. ]! R* _1 S: Y5 }
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
* y; r7 r0 b8 T" _: Camber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
% N7 r, m2 b0 l) V- j. G$ NFrom there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was ; M, h- [) q+ ^0 B- e6 c' A! N% Q
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring ' A. ^: s4 y0 H& b, p( Y* i
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
0 t8 C! L, ~2 ~! I1 ]thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
" O4 O9 v' z" f2 qused and is still used in Chinese medicine. & I- }3 Q9 G& q$ k1 R+ H7 K/ i
0 D5 A" Z! L; F' z( D" |) o- v g6 GThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
' j3 {! n- l3 n% O! kSemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to
7 M& E7 `0 L6 ^' K! O: xred amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde.
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In the 19th Century, there were a series of reports about the location and mining of Burmese amber By Brester (1835) " ]) S$ X, q$ y6 L! a
and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng)
6 R* F% V; p* |) bValley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow ; K% j( U7 k* d a
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
# S6 W1 x9 v' A6 J2 r“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to 7 }( j: m) N# O4 z; u U3 A
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
5 F2 a9 C5 ~1 \' B* QMandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of
8 E0 V/ Y4 V* \4 Enorthern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name 9 z4 b& }8 m' R5 _( v/ Q# d
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
* A/ K3 @, V4 a+ v1893. 3 S. m5 L2 r6 M+ p# K' n
! v! K- I$ [% D0 Y1 ?* U$ w( G9 C) sIn the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the + ~5 J" g5 K/ F: G9 e- p) }
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
$ D/ a3 d, T `# Minternal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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/ x' P% m9 ^' W: K q( WCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
9 c% Y6 B7 U- N4 r3 b1 G# UUpper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District 8 i9 n' ~ C8 W( J6 M
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
( A7 O% ^2 f5 N' d: dHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson 6 H# t" G8 i7 e' N. p
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as 1 ~) j' \* N" Q( @- \: h: [
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits. 6 U/ O2 }7 W) v+ A" e3 l0 b, d7 ?
Chibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
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5 L" u# _7 }2 n0 M8 r# XDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the 8 n f1 Y$ ?, Y7 E$ m' U1 d
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the * y( X" H D; f
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
, D7 b4 F; @. L+ s6 r, {7 S' @up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
, v& ~5 J* Z, jmaterial.
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin % Z% L8 n) Y& x# \! S/ d$ ~, I
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited
) u! G$ a A& _access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
+ [% T' x& V5 f2 A fname of the country. 3 r- s4 C) L; m
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Since the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David
! e# Q5 ~ W/ F% c- W5 n6 \& @Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part - q3 ^& Y( a; }6 Y8 R* Q1 A" G$ z
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.” 8 L8 d0 O/ g* N- X) A4 }. w4 a
" D" D m5 ]8 [Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and + @, F4 }/ d- q3 o2 i' P# |
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold
" r; L, `7 P' T5 z3 M/ Z/ i2 Qprice, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening
& R( H+ B4 `/ M' `$ h7 mthe amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per 2 V) z/ E) m9 l3 n/ |# M
year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural 0 ]2 G# l: x1 N' i2 y
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a , ~* B M& A. F J0 t2 ?& i, X+ J
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a 6 p. G+ w2 s, M! g
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a
' X0 P- e4 U0 I5 ` q0 T) Qdescription of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous . i- ^3 b4 h7 N* ?' Y7 O
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from + C+ Y* u! C; J
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. . S4 K j8 n+ q* C: @4 t1 O
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
. {4 K* a8 f' x* {burmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber.
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