缅甸琥珀简史/ B: _9 I3 c7 Y E z# n+ _7 O
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（注意我标注的红色文字）
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Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
4 w# Y1 }+ r& G" S; y1 nState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
: `. R2 l) i% C# o! q- f3 ~! mamber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
2 k% f, k6 N- P) k" l" S ?From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was # n5 G, ]9 ]! T, l8 Q
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
' [/ g1 p* h: }8 F" Sto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two 4 T) y) a' Y5 v+ {( E
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also 1 h7 j7 L0 Z: j* q! W3 z" N, Z6 v
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
4 y; D, ]' v6 E1 ^Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to
. j( P" f8 M6 x0 s z" i; ?red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde. 8 ?, t- B/ \8 a! d: G* R0 R1 g3 L
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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) / z1 `/ Q9 E4 d+ O; J
and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng)
; R; J' Q( N, n7 cValley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow F& [2 R& g) _
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the , W7 z: i- y. {3 F" J; a
“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep. ) u, ^& N& t1 S: J$ O5 p
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In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to ) F2 h4 Q( n8 i! A
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
/ T8 \; e: }6 A# DMandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of 6 k6 H4 U8 c* z3 q: V c& E
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name 4 b0 A& h0 ]9 n/ B" ~( c
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
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( e: j0 I# s. }. ~, D5 y4 {+ uIn the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
5 ~8 K4 y/ `$ f- \4 xSecond World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
$ _" {* i; D( t( q' N5 m( Ointernal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. / h8 b* g6 S. m
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Cockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
- d# O; q( h0 o. ?5 X6 UUpper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
6 \, y; l5 x+ A. ~* i t( u( ?6 lfrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the k$ y; L% @* Q
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
7 u8 x( s! `# {: W x(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as
' O- A+ Y, R& ]Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits. 9 Z3 I: q2 P+ b8 V! L. ?8 b: E
Chibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
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! U* I( B7 X: |' A3 mDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
# c% h0 ^, m4 P% ]: _* R" DJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
) I; d0 }% y# a- _# T* x( rconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
( {5 F L/ t' S* Pup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
! G% k5 x' E2 |7 v4 A7 E9 ^6 imaterial.
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
( }7 F+ E! T) PIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited
. z8 m# @) @5 q) aaccess to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
n% q9 X3 A9 X9 y3 V6 m# nname of the country. * H. A! B% t/ H4 @/ m+ a) a 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
( _; Q9 b L5 S) PGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part 1 p- g3 }: J$ E! G9 ^) u% e/ l2 E
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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, o) G( F' u5 G, ^7 YLeeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and 6 b; s9 p0 c) a% ]0 r
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold , n$ P* L% |. D6 e( o6 K( O
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening
- ^) ]4 e% Q" N$ P7 }3 Fthe amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per & S: @" d9 V' o) p% d' ^
year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural " @! u U: c% z0 m# o
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a 9 y- H. x% C( D) S* `
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a / N2 j+ y9 G, `4 v/ J
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a
; t2 Q+ L6 k( s( p% a2 {description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous ( f7 z+ Z' l" }/ i! r& |) D" c
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
4 t' Y/ m( S" X4 H% ]! `which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. % J6 k) T" X- S2 H# P
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in ! e8 A% L! `4 ]
burmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |
狗仔卡
发表于 2011-1-14 04:20:54
显身卡
