缅甸琥珀简史
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2 ?5 i% t4 o4 N* F& E5 W! k7 VBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
% Y' O, M- n8 {) mState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
& `5 ?( l& ~! g2 R- |0 o e% kamber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
# x+ @/ g l# o5 G; r; NFrom there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
/ q2 Q6 }& e. s- _5 a" l9 W. }highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
( X6 f$ D5 ]4 \2 J! C/ s0 h$ s3 `1 Yto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
" ?3 F8 k: y$ o) Athousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
" C# s1 A2 p: v- I2 [/ \used and is still used in Chinese medicine. 6 V3 I" u) D2 A; N" s3 }
5 g) v/ ]2 n" n! OThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
4 ~8 P0 s! O5 V) M0 oSemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to 9 a l0 `: J/ v0 B
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde.
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, w" L8 x8 O5 ~, y9 d. {; CIn the 19th Century, there were a series of reports about the location and mining of Burmese amber By Brester (1835)
; }# Y5 {+ p$ F: R/ aand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) " g t9 C3 m, G- y7 S% A/ M: U% ?
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
) G9 i% [8 c( L- F( epits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
; `: b4 l" E- |- h3 F; h“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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" d/ \; o) e, M" x0 s, T! ~In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
# i* C$ [$ }# C1 s* gIndia . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
% W& u; V- I- s4 I2 k& O x! hMandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of 1 x. g% v/ Z2 M
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name
4 m- R" X5 U% \( a$ lburmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
, x: y3 k- J/ R% O* }, l1 L; Y1893. / r6 V3 M7 z7 R/ _
; n1 [0 p& `; L) e" \/ k& b6 pIn the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
& J+ N6 {- e2 p! z1 A* t! ^# ZSecond World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
0 U' ]7 k/ ]4 Y' n2 s' \& uinternal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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" ]7 h+ I, g P1 A& eCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly 7 }5 h: l7 p( u$ H6 E" W
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
; b, c2 v8 I: [$ Q9 m: Hfrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
1 o. [, p; E4 mHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
* Q8 @& F, L% t" m3 L& w(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as 0 \0 d5 g0 @/ }7 m% C
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
8 \) Z. _0 ?% P# rChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period. 6 q5 z6 ]( C: C$ S
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During the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the ' s! z$ l9 m$ J/ t) y
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the 6 X: h$ i5 g6 |+ r( ]; v7 {
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
' T; P7 K1 H i5 G O! @up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war 1 b& V5 p% i3 `* Z
material.
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
+ [% L1 h- V/ V* e0 MIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited " }5 B& [; t& q* x& H
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese & U) E9 B+ Y4 e, D
name of the country. 0 _ n2 Z# W4 G1 w; }/ s( [
/ M/ Z* y- B8 H* eSince the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David
$ _' z( m. _) z9 d' ZGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part
& b8 y( b6 m: z, qbecause the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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) T5 J: A' m: j, ], oLeeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and 4 _# G" `# v) N- L( x
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold
$ @, d3 n) y4 v* M' Z! ]# fprice, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening
8 X2 U- s! \% ^4 A/ M* d7 Y, a b& m6 ~the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per * ^5 u1 c2 B2 P, E( V
year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
1 y$ q: C3 o1 ~1 a- CHistory in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a . ?* V1 d V" {( h8 N
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
8 `% n* U: W' u$ e' |! Yscientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a
, B9 H7 O; J; z+ ?# o7 |description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous , t+ F7 k- D/ d9 @/ ?
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from + B+ U3 l2 n3 F% b
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber.
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5 m4 Q2 t3 L+ D2 z" [% {% FSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
- g# M y$ r( S/ R6 Lburmite. 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
