缅甸琥珀简史% K ~) z9 ?0 c' Z# I& R6 r
3 {" W! r+ `3 V6 x- ~& _* _3 A, w& P(注意我标注的红色文字)
* h* B+ D1 H4 j8 G7 L( B! D) V
2 W! Z# j9 Y/ {! I2 q- I) c4 J* p; L1 \8 i
Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
% W- I& f( F) I1 I) I. o7 J' F4 VState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
! g' s c) `5 f3 G/ ` |+ J9 Jamber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . ; ]5 z- |& G( W: M+ R4 P/ Y0 |" `
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
: r+ U% s3 d! k9 M/ a! A' Uhighly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
# B. b) G4 C7 F0 \to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
" h; y& w6 i1 Q6 s' d! ~, r' gthousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
% G5 n; ], F4 x% L2 g( I' G& rused and is still used in Chinese medicine.
+ Y ]! ?; B9 I% S% N' o2 m5 R+ q' z" g& G. r5 I! l: K
The first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
+ A/ }8 K1 u* J# f" O6 [6 dSemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to % o3 m' `( H' Z' ?, k
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde.
# d/ q4 m) R; c" o+ ]" ]; o" h8 B3 @) P# g8 w* }* z. g4 `& Z4 m5 X
In the 19th Century, there were a series of reports about the location and mining of Burmese amber By Brester (1835)
. w6 o7 j% l" m- i8 C% cand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng)
+ {2 ~$ X! M/ s) |8 UValley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow " @& i; A1 I/ Q2 p, L: L4 _
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
/ I% m" K: T- l: Z# ]“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep. . y7 R2 L- d4 ~" b- ]: j
8 }" Q- ]& z. s9 ~
In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to * z. [+ X! Z3 W
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to ; w1 c) r# A8 Q% j$ ~
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of ( `. L/ K. b: o K% U! q
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name 8 O8 ^" C( w6 h& k1 ^5 h
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in $ d1 R$ v& C% N
1893.
/ [+ b" K/ f6 _' p) R+ ^7 T; p R4 {$ |2 ]1 |
In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the * O. j. H' V9 Z6 v1 h
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
4 E# f4 [3 S7 ninternal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. 4 q2 v( d% H! d
/ S! I( R8 P6 {3 d
Cockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly 1 K" O1 \* u+ L1 W0 X9 B1 m( `% z, \
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
g0 m! Q4 g w- t' H$ nfrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the 7 C" k8 f8 C5 ]6 y
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
* J9 ] o+ L2 _(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as " g( x" g2 W. P: |5 R
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
# O1 b- H% m, mChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period. 0 A6 |6 F7 Q( y) b3 ?2 m# ~
" j4 r! c: V, ^; t8 E, VDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the ; n9 ?2 {& Q5 m5 y
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
+ f% s7 d) V5 ? s9 |! dconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
) e) U0 u, \9 t& \& R% Qup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war 4 n0 Q& y: `% i: H) j* D
material.
! H8 k( \0 P; c" Y, V/ n" h
" }! T0 q/ P9 `5 Y. B; [% P+ }% h, `# CSince independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin + ^. d0 u0 z3 L X* W+ Q; M2 j }
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited 4 o# R+ Y* ?8 c# ^- A! j5 c
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese 2 r. P$ b3 B$ L2 [* T7 |
name of the country.
) L/ A2 n8 Z; N1 M* p& Q h1 Z; ?9 \' K5 I) [0 u# M
Since the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David ) S L: r0 @- o) d' K* q& ]
Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part % q3 p0 Z+ M4 f! g' i
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
+ s3 \) H/ P: h2 O h' w$ d& ?) s- K9 C
Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and / n! S4 _6 @, B' K
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold , u' Y6 Y8 U+ Z: ?: \4 d4 {# {' u- X
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening 1 o, n0 Q. ~+ {: ]/ V: B; P
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
2 F, Y+ i; [- `# Xyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural * T! |$ o* `3 d$ \& H3 Y8 q/ N
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
7 K* H1 G; E% s, e6 f7 r/ pscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a 0 ~+ a. ?( \/ V* _& [8 l% _
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a
2 {- o% c' L+ p: rdescription of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous
* i* S) w4 E( u, N" O5 p% \3 _4 }9 bage. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
9 ~7 n9 o- v8 B& t7 P; B# T3 a# awhich commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. 5 z9 M( R$ H, y- K" f
" c9 d) S W* K( a9 f9 i& p4 cSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
$ b9 [2 ?4 v0 s& U5 Dburmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |