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本帖最后由 德道 于 2010-10-30 22:21 编辑 ! [6 Z$ b- Z V6 [( n' A
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Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin * w9 h, I: ^* c7 N# |& m
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources ; C. }) a$ H' R
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
4 P1 o7 @" f$ h9 d) L2 J k; NFrom there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
% o/ c8 \- M0 Ghighly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
$ B8 D5 P0 o$ v8 z- Uto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two 2 J; \0 W7 H4 ]
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
3 O; N/ q3 v" L( k# @( Bused and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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" G1 k9 e& A- [- j# ?) QThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
; S7 f0 F- K0 A$ G% |$ D( XSemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to ! K! s! A1 N+ T
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde. ) j& G( A6 g4 b- a& E8 b/ I
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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)
! o; e" O3 Z4 B1 k! c$ _and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) # E" Q7 c" L/ f8 p. L
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
2 ~6 b1 h- f! Q tpits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the 9 t' s) B9 k3 U2 [+ v
“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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. x* c$ z/ }) }" Z8 j: `8 cIn 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to 5 Y1 C! Q* }( `4 X+ w
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to * j1 w4 D1 K6 i3 \1 p' s/ E% w* C k
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of 8 b1 ^7 L' L+ f1 ] y
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name
7 {# |/ L( X. p# @6 r- Oburmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in 0 o2 v% `, a; r: u8 H$ v! J
1893.
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, r! Y$ {% \9 D! x6 tIn the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
/ I9 ]7 i5 M' O6 pSecond World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also 7 E# h$ E* ~' ?9 [' v
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. ) n! k( K, n! H' V2 t
; n1 I* z1 h! E2 ~. jCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly ( d+ j+ c& D7 G1 C$ _! \
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District 4 ]$ r' s B4 ~6 n8 T+ t8 ~
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the # V- ` e3 n. x' K' Q) D- n
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson * }+ g. P) X p2 {) o: P9 X
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as
" D( Z" k |: V' \- Z4 g* IBaltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
8 f) R M( c/ ~* [7 RChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
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) ?& P. q S* S* S+ M: G! XDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the : l' @: |! t# W8 I0 g. X! i$ O
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
- g! y8 r5 ]) R6 L; v) H) U* Aconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected 1 t- ?% t+ f& X
up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
/ W& { [4 l2 B3 K1 I( P- zmaterial. 1 \- Q! R" }' p, q. v8 [, o7 E' d
% ?" g( T7 C3 `7 VSince independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin $ H: {7 Z" B7 M. a5 W7 Y8 ~
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited & r3 \; k8 L; j* O( R. t. \
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
( f+ z7 T& j: {8 I; y( Tname of the country.
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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
9 Y7 f& N4 ?" B+ [+ r6 bGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part . T5 \0 h7 h, p4 i/ x. R4 v2 s
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.” / X1 J6 H9 B1 \9 K4 K
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Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and ( R- B" B; x" |! C1 l
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold " o( y9 O! i: G/ l
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening ' I! F; ?% w+ P+ o
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
" C& A) U3 a6 m$ fyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
) \& |" O' }3 I+ I; SHistory in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a 3 d. q* k! S: O6 O9 k% ^+ q
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a 2 q a8 @$ n' v& x
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a * m6 g3 ~* b/ \( {
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous 8 [+ _% a _: z0 q& @3 k
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
) m; b, k1 E, |) W+ Y* q: Qwhich commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. $ s% f4 k) L9 G$ `% I
' D" K3 |3 q1 q5 X7 LSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
3 G0 Y" |# u3 H. [burmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber.
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