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本帖最后由 德道 于 2010-10-30 22:21 编辑
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Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
( r/ s F5 _5 ~& K! mState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources 9 e4 L( R3 [' j2 t/ o2 `2 n
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
" z& q/ O j/ rFrom there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
2 g4 A% L, E9 khighly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
) B1 I! Q/ P: K9 V5 D% hto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two : m0 ]. i2 V) T+ s0 Y/ r% {
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also 1 u) U( m( }- `4 q
used and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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' t2 J# u$ C7 ]1 j- mThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
2 f! m7 { u5 G0 d4 Q0 ^) OSemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to & G6 z; o5 I: |. ~
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde.
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- Y# g5 a2 l1 nIn the 19th Century, there were a series of reports about the location and mining of Burmese amber By Brester (1835)
3 t. \5 q/ S3 o6 s4 l. }% }# P) X" Q8 Land Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng)
1 f4 Y! H2 z0 q4 m& dValley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
6 i Z* L7 ~' B3 Apits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the 4 J1 q; y/ N+ [' ?2 c. a: o. O6 s
“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep. ! M& _& k( d! f0 c0 g5 b
% {7 F- e; C4 D! G$ j+ l. B# UIn 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to ) d7 I/ q/ n: d9 b# ? u0 R% x
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to & I/ |. I/ C" ]$ X5 A
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of ! F/ r. A* Q/ w
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name " ~ W% g( d [8 t3 a7 U9 Z
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in % H& T8 P: T, `! j, O6 Y2 U w" T7 O
1893. 7 k7 W0 @' y+ I& {' M0 L: r, v4 o
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In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the 4 N/ v- ^, A3 u/ \+ G) M# @" ]
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
, ?0 b. A9 Z: w( Jinternal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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Cockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
: r1 E2 b/ Y6 |' E. {$ AUpper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District 0 M q0 ]1 H/ J1 x% W
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the ) x/ w. ]3 j- \4 @1 h
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
4 v& T1 w5 U9 e(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as ( V- V) ^7 Y6 ]( s3 u
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
N6 K* u% Q2 C) l0 z7 aChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
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' _; r8 C/ O1 T( L+ bDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
5 g5 ~5 D: y, }( v/ VJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
/ a$ }' k7 I/ Sconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected , \$ I& ?6 z4 ~& ]. g# L
up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
- c$ l3 @6 l0 s, G! V' c. Qmaterial.
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin " h2 a9 @- D/ A: t' L8 x( L a" e
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited 9 A7 u1 C4 b! O2 s
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese & @3 r& X- l# ~; l$ a5 ^( D% {9 \
name of the country. , l+ t- P/ O- C" j
4 h7 Z# F$ h# {# Y: WSince the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David
/ }6 _0 Z+ K5 _2 \" q0 E, MGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part
@! U! l" A( v: l2 obecause the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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/ f# L3 v. v; g; l* _7 }; `8 `Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and
! `4 d- o% E+ N# p5 z; Cplatinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold
/ ~! G+ \$ A; o" y( J) R: }; Kprice, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening # m, T6 u+ l H/ g9 s! ?5 S5 U& g( c
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
1 G6 f' N/ T' V6 p1 N5 y/ @year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural 3 w: M/ x5 C* N1 J/ F: ]
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
, l" `1 f* W9 `" F6 w' p1 O3 Pscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
, o* b% {0 A# kscientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a / Z' W- @% [/ S6 C6 L, b# S
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous
. j9 w; l( ~3 ^age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from - Q; N+ L) d* v0 M( g
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. , @6 W- g# U8 l0 }3 O
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in 9 B; q, ]2 P% ~; h6 [9 z% |$ q
burmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber.
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