缅甸琥珀简史
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8 ]4 L5 v5 x, J1 X5 g7 mBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin ' L! m( w8 X7 n6 H/ E; O
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
, X" ^+ O$ H8 Eamber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
/ j4 n/ I. k; M& FFrom there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
k4 Y9 c* t1 V k" Vhighly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring 8 m$ L( g. c9 j3 K: Q% a
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
4 O$ C! R! x4 j+ {$ Jthousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
9 r. w# @- D% e. [; Sused and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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) ^* x% S) g/ X' z% n5 e# LThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
+ R9 a6 T0 G3 Y: R/ ESemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to
) X: d" c! a& j; Z/ |+ @" z1 ured amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde.
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+ ]9 c" ]; ?- c& C9 n+ ZIn the 19th Century, there were a series of reports about the location and mining of Burmese amber By Brester (1835) _+ h) _2 D1 o: y2 A7 z
and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng)
m1 h3 G& e# {7 I- ?0 f7 qValley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow # k. Z0 _/ k& [% l' \% Q
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
$ F2 N( k+ Z& ?8 N3 T“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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4 [& X' m: s& m5 E2 l. a: h# lIn 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
$ I6 T h, g) I# T) L SIndia . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to , s F/ U$ _1 g; ]3 L# H0 r U- w
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of : }; P: G$ ?, n" c: ~9 `
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name / F3 M5 L+ E( c9 G" ?4 G
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
% L- l* n3 r: F6 N1893. " a; }. z% q) Z/ ]9 T. Y
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In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the % Q9 S3 j9 n, I
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also 8 i) T% C' V) k& L5 H' g4 |
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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) h N4 A6 S, ~1 \8 q) ACockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
: r( }" ~% S' V4 B. ~Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District 2 s0 L4 g% l# g1 t# }0 o/ A
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
3 t% s& ^. L9 i9 t" uHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
3 z: _( u- w- L1 @# T5 p' v E, k(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as
6 s# }; \( Z. A( n5 [Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
( Y4 S4 J/ g& p* Y: `Chibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period. : d( C0 G/ \5 p9 u6 y
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During the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
+ d, X# `8 U0 E6 o4 d9 ZJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
$ p) d$ L. B. Q3 Y1 M! Iconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
A1 t/ Y9 n: P6 aup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war 6 F+ \, E% F/ S/ S
material.
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: f" P4 k0 u% r! d C2 ySince independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin : ~1 B- I# y) l6 _# e8 T U, q/ }
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited
9 H" W& _) h) M: Eaccess to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
" }" C. p& e. |$ Ename of the country. 5 N9 |, E" T4 h' Y9 A4 B2 d8 c
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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 3 T" { O6 k+ L4 Y7 A5 @
Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part 3 }* I* z! Q" E7 N# M
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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5 E3 \9 S6 i5 h" g# ?: ^8 Q1 |Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and
r, P; T- m! n; ]+ C7 m! D. Aplatinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold / T( f; |3 F0 g. \6 K6 |- p
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening - z# t- v* \9 n5 I0 |
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
/ U# G/ m: g! `5 G; [! F5 uyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural 5 r- @3 \- X2 w* d+ L" A# n
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a : C s, Z0 T5 ?: [ {
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a 3 R/ V/ E0 G* g2 v$ j
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a
" a) [$ {% A6 p. r# g7 i, `+ sdescription of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous . x0 D9 |2 U7 y3 G
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from % \6 F- e. q) @
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber.
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- T1 D0 ~3 K0 VSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
- l: Z3 y; t( k. G* Bburmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |
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发表于 2011-1-14 04:20:54
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