缅甸琥珀简史) z5 ^, r, e& f/ M
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Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin $ `0 @3 V. _8 q& C" `% {
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources 3 _3 f5 g- N7 ]
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . & X! T8 @: b* @: T9 ]* I' A
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was . T Z$ W: e N/ }
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring . S6 k3 d1 x6 Z' Z0 t
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
/ R6 E+ q6 ?3 r' P! v- Z7 y, |4 Ethousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
1 b! [' l K. Q( k, X7 }" Vused and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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* a9 G, I3 I5 O0 z5 N3 SThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez - ~* R8 W2 B3 _. [) I1 e6 ?
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to 6 b, m0 S7 Y; ]! S o
red 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)
( [( C: i% ^& g0 O/ A, x: Y0 Qand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) . Y, Z0 }% e2 P, Z: r
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow + r/ W$ ^' U* A! X, o) d
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
6 K$ w3 q4 N; v& y# c“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep. : }( z7 n7 t8 q0 K! ^7 _5 W
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In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
0 |. n2 u0 H* D; g$ p" l6 V2 KIndia . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
( Z9 L7 N& F/ T# i; n2 aMandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of 8 l L$ m. l3 u/ }7 \" U6 J9 d0 ~
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name & j( \9 b+ h$ e5 ]9 N
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
* ]/ {) c: t( L! n5 L1893. , t, Q, j1 d/ [) n
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In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
! x' R6 `5 D9 h0 Q! {( S. eSecond World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
7 k- A) d* B N7 Yinternal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. ' M0 ^5 K ]& p$ ~$ q
: f$ D6 ^! a2 tCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly . g [1 A# z [# J
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
* X8 S! `; d& P) s/ @: cfrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the % }3 n) K5 l& |$ S* F7 _% q* Z
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson 9 o; k. B% p" V$ |! t' v: m' y$ z
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as 5 Z& D% x4 p' |$ r# D. h
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits. ( O! r9 J( |5 ^9 l/ i# f
Chibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period. : \+ G; z. _0 i: n
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During the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
8 u% K& j e6 j% ]1 XJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
& z) K& p/ u: k* r# n; F" Yconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected 1 [4 T' A7 \6 f6 R
up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war ) w W& S" q/ m
material.
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
6 e4 ~2 a! X6 V# e2 m. ? i. ?% wIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited ' j" p3 L/ h, J
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
* W ~6 |' y, q/ `0 b8 h& d6 {name of the country.
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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
) L! y' a& F4 a! _. e2 gGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part
7 W9 @3 m5 Z9 V1 k; e, N1 d6 cbecause the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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5 T4 I: @3 y+ Q- z$ a3 vLeeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and 2 | V& l4 Z* S3 |6 ?' [
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold
; C7 @& b4 ?( ?. i* Zprice, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening
. r/ U& C1 g0 H6 _% [5 M' Q$ jthe amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
6 g x7 b' w" J: ~# xyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural ; U2 I- M3 R6 O$ S4 ~$ W7 H
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
: O7 W9 O' q! `! q3 h- o& cscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a & f8 r) x O2 o. {2 [
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a / _( G. ~0 Q0 H: N& Y4 L9 }
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous 6 U/ v' \/ \% w% @+ w
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
: `$ x" p5 t; @0 O; \9 K3 jwhich commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. / h+ I9 Q; a8 e! o6 @- R
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in , N' Z" w3 X" G, R( j
burmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |