缅甸琥珀简史0 [: K c+ H# J+ b
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(注意我标注的红色文字)
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; u! ]3 A8 G' ~) z" R7 _Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
! {( }& `1 p& y1 hState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources * Z' N0 v9 ]/ w7 ]) V
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
4 u: y# t/ z0 dFrom there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was " Z* y; S9 } L( o' H
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring ' G+ K" E! k' l, N
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two , y0 h% e7 q% i2 m
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also % ^6 E; N) L' i% y! l# u2 O$ Q
used and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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The first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez 7 l. u1 b7 S$ @, `. u# P
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to
5 n( F, H9 P: E/ ]9 B, A8 pred 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) $ ]( q% K, m: R7 M1 o: a
and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) 9 ]' Z" ]0 o: I7 s- h
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow & B) T' m" ~9 r( l$ c, q
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
* Q, M7 f C5 r“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep. $ t* G1 _9 I$ ` r4 Z% R$ @
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In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
/ w% _! W) ~. @India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to ; K+ u$ X D0 e
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of
5 h) W; C( ]8 Q( Z9 onorthern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name & h! k4 C- \% K2 y S$ ?! R
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in ) L6 N: }7 o& d2 H8 V. G
1893. " z$ c6 U- q+ Y6 U. Z! p' E, z# M: |
5 d& g: k+ {3 q1 {In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the ' b# S, w, X- W" s! r+ _
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also & u/ L) k# G2 g/ p
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. ' c* N3 {) {/ \# v3 R3 R
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Cockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
, ]9 n Z1 ?" D: C, ?Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
8 T( M7 m, @; G8 }2 C9 c) w# s9 o: xfrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
5 F1 b. G7 M4 k5 E" ?& B, nHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
; y3 g+ {3 X, Q0 y5 z(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as % N% H5 Q+ W; x& b' g$ \
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits. 9 P/ }: z& Z. [! m2 _
Chibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
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During the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
+ @, S; |* d+ f5 A$ j2 N5 R" RJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
! d; {) d' y4 k5 n7 gconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected 7 ], Y% m- b: c, ?
up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war $ a( \+ S6 c0 {- |2 U' Y% `
material. + m. `5 x# o6 p2 f7 U5 Y
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
2 y; I% n4 v; Z" O+ JIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited
* W) E/ L! a5 s Z7 U# Paccess to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
! F* V2 c" K) _, R& P9 dname of the country.
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* b3 H' Y1 k! p% ? _* Z$ n" ^Since the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David
9 P$ K3 @7 s4 |. b8 B `; y9 ~Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part ' J1 V- ]; [& X V
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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" c) k& B/ E: u1 P9 W. U% a- @Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and 1 O4 u3 q& F" k1 [4 s( R$ x) p
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold 9 N+ p+ a) I$ }, J9 {. B
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening
# V% {% _) ]/ y" othe amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per $ M3 d& ~) t* N
year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural " R% J& k. u! r9 y- c
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
; [4 z; t' i) F5 B6 |4 Kscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
" ^2 p% |1 n" w. j: {7 ?scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a
7 F% Y- _, ~. Z, C; x8 idescription of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous ) s" q K8 d9 |# N
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from 6 u" u# O' V, B. P/ m
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber.
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
/ Q8 ^' @1 G; C6 }0 eburmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |