缅甸琥珀简史
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$ Q. @% W( t3 G1 I; H% jBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin k; M0 n/ H3 T: C% s6 m
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
. ~4 t8 _8 |+ c* tamber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . D. }' N# n p! Y. g/ {' E7 j
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
) Y( k5 w0 {1 ?highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
# b6 I: K5 Z9 z, A* S" Y8 oto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two : d/ I2 m% j8 q* W9 B9 K
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
. H, Y0 K4 ]7 Vused and is still used in Chinese medicine. 7 w( C, R+ \# W7 |, ~
5 [2 Q; H" a( h- [) m# T0 ^3 UThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
* h, T/ c- m( l* \) F; J' gSemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to
% l5 z \% c2 V" Y+ w. z/ Fred 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) Z) E" {/ V* X5 oand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) " F8 m% ^! H( }' u
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
' y4 S( }4 N' l v7 ~2 K) epits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
5 h# [; W/ Z* x8 z2 t" D“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep. 7 }% t6 {, j' W+ t3 U
# j7 v }, v k% HIn 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to 8 U& P1 q( [' e5 K; o; o- t
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
5 Z3 n/ c0 a, m/ gMandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of ' v2 C0 s9 o1 {1 N" b/ }% O8 P; t
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name
1 k+ u) N" y" O7 j' Qburmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
% ~ {4 [8 f& k. t1893.
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: O; t) S: [/ c1 [* rIn the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the m* S/ P9 |7 j9 D
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also 8 x# E2 u5 P% Z; J
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. # S3 W. n) n" y5 i7 n! ~
4 p: Y$ g5 s' b" S6 P" QCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly * l i. m. \+ I$ F3 o) `
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
% m9 J7 w3 `5 I8 L" Vfrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the 8 e: K, ^8 K$ D7 ]
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson 9 r5 l) E# S" n1 h
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as ' x/ z+ Z4 \9 A1 `5 e
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits. 7 C m6 n5 j( U6 I
Chibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period. ; ]- f5 h0 N( D; z0 A0 }( e
( H- Y( e- }7 k0 [During the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the t) R8 F* C0 C% y1 ~ u/ `: D" H- O
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the 3 L1 A o+ ]) a& `# ?; B2 v" A, [# b
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
5 |* F+ d; U7 A& |up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
5 k2 _% ]' o" x8 V& X6 PIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited , f& k/ ^( n1 P+ P9 e/ \3 }
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
! `. X' _+ b: n) [3 Vname of the country.
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' b% A4 e5 f7 M% n* w. A+ Y1 i4 @Since the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David
% D. I1 e- l% o! E& GGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part
D, ~; ~+ O8 vbecause the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and ( W4 N& I# S' ^' y) [ x
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold : b2 t5 i' e1 i) v
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening 8 T' D9 y; j- n6 T
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
. g; U! f- W* E/ @4 l. @year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
6 Z2 |1 Q0 K& E! l" r8 }History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
8 i3 m6 e1 Z e% S( }( x) Nscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a 8 I% S1 B# X% M9 h K
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a $ W7 @1 Q; J- V( O9 i4 C5 q. d+ ^
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous 1 S: M5 [2 E/ n. e% V# R4 x
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
; s* n& G- W. C: ^6 C' Y2 d- Dwhich commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. , I6 f2 ?, @: ?" R% X, {* W
& q. S5 }1 S) \+ I0 T, {" B* Z: c% oSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
5 K9 B. a6 v. H) ^* Gburmite. 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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