缅甸琥珀简史8 r6 G# P7 h' g2 b+ |
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(注意我标注的红色文字)8 [* } L# |/ t5 S0 J/ O
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% x8 a$ ?% q! wBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
7 D& h& o7 O( R8 j% P$ [* f! C% x* [State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources ; X7 `' j! A, C5 g' G
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . # ~; t5 C U" Z4 k: E
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was / O# v6 e$ X. F A) M
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring 2 N6 g. k+ f0 d$ o/ T% I
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
8 s* ^0 U6 ]. w2 t% c8 J4 Lthousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also 4 {. z0 r/ O7 c6 G
used and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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, V* {4 w* q9 F- Z. [+ gThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez . b6 u# p( `2 t% p2 ?0 v, C
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to ) r5 G$ J; {2 r" M/ [$ ~
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde. 6 @1 O9 A% P5 Q% b ]# t
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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)
2 f( p; L+ W- eand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng)
6 o" {7 E5 o5 [! c, ~7 CValley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
% a/ ]: l" O/ K5 Y' Q6 Spits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
5 U: `& o8 M$ e3 \“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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8 c5 A! B4 c; C( ]$ D9 ^In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
( i! Y3 J" V% [5 f. mIndia . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
. H- u: E# a$ ]! ?" {, e. }Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of
( }( |# X1 z' @$ nnorthern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name * M' J5 g$ W3 r- R! f4 a& u
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
: `& H* m; J0 }# n5 e3 S/ U1893.
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In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
' @8 |- y7 X6 e4 H5 \Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also ; U+ {7 ?. V* |7 C' z' p
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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5 k2 i7 ]9 T) c" Y2 `2 `Cockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
W: _+ S' W$ Y+ c4 _: ~8 gUpper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District " v$ g2 O2 m% f8 f
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the 5 u: ^# L% z* q
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson ; {+ w1 ~7 P0 i3 L$ D; E3 T+ g. \
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as
+ j$ N/ [$ M4 _* z8 i& L; ~% G5 _Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
+ Q, K2 {9 ^3 B4 U( {+ c. x, oChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period. 9 h4 e3 Z+ p& i: g
( M: o3 G2 t3 B1 n( |During the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the X( F* r8 k R: o+ ~! ?
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
' ^ n9 N6 k6 o1 `construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
9 m1 D k6 U! ?4 m5 S7 ?up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war k% a! L. z1 M- T d, C: b8 ^9 ~9 y
material. 5 @8 a' W' D5 c$ N) B0 j
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
* x$ N. ]' u. U( l6 o& @: UIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited ; a4 \* f- h7 ?. i
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
& o# e# F& x* b. `( f1 t* @" Z) yname of the country. * X: X- {1 ^" c2 T; O; m
8 \3 ~8 q/ [. P: t# C' t5 |+ a2 |Since the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David
5 g U& F; e: c3 q! EGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part ' J) O u* v0 ^7 K- h+ l0 ~
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.” ) s B2 z* C0 T
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Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and
+ M2 g) a- Z: @3 r/ d3 bplatinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold 2 A1 T7 L( g' l8 X5 V
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening }& P9 t' i% G+ d3 G. Y
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
: _- j9 E5 z% q. \+ v8 jyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural 3 W! x/ n8 o$ s3 j4 l0 y) V
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a * S1 t/ m' L, Z. l+ ?
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a ; a+ d. M M! N
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a # v7 T' B& {* e/ Z) m7 b9 {; J
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous 1 m% I) ~4 |8 }1 |. j
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from & I- q, N# ?+ K, O+ h+ c
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. : s& k9 y2 S; Z5 B4 M& }
0 L1 s! t, ?) zSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
& p$ h: @, }( Y' U8 o# r0 sburmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |