缅甸琥珀简史
6 n+ s [% C1 z# j
% y1 i1 Q6 u' I* G. D, V( A4 t! l（注意我标注的红色文字）: V% S& u4 o. L" g# Q. P
! k; O3 e2 l7 Z& w( ]( H
' ^- w3 `3 {/ r% t! I: t
Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
# A% A% B$ T! q. E D6 `State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
/ S; Y2 c* R$ n; x# \/ `; mamber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
3 y' G' s1 e/ A; bFrom there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was % l# ]# V: S) d2 d: t
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
% ]7 x5 C7 W! B7 q* G$ s$ [% r) jto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
! H- v8 J0 @& |& l; `4 a) e8 y% _ ]: nthousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also $ q3 Z; A) {4 N# d% p
used and is still used in Chinese medicine. 8 S% b* L, T' \. {+ Q2 s* Y0 _
, m& U1 x1 L- SThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
: H0 x2 a$ m8 K6 B1 XSemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to 4 ?7 M5 C; x6 s5 \
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde. # U; }. h, J5 a
% D" G/ z N6 |, _) n# Y9 AIn the 19th Century, there were a series of reports about the location and mining of Burmese amber By Brester (1835)
. f R, b, w* E# @! U( }. Fand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng)
( s8 G0 t6 L7 \- }2 H" o$ zValley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow ) l: J2 C/ }1 v- [6 _
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the 3 S8 J/ V! E3 H! [' w6 r
“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
$ T! M5 {+ h9 C% z9 j0 P8 F- e
& a+ J. P( [2 C6 @ eIn 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
4 B# v Q2 P' yIndia . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to . i+ |- {) \3 c# ~
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of ) s7 r/ b) [- L; l
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name
, s$ f5 o2 p- s* u, O& mburmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
g+ U. L7 |3 c( c: x, B3 I2 {: Y1893.
5 e7 Y0 J6 a% t* a9 ]
, l( |6 W) R% c) BIn the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the . ], F/ ?2 T" A
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also % q) {4 d& |* t# }! n( q" o+ u1 a
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. ( W, N6 U2 W ^- G6 i) A
3 j1 h2 b( m0 T. tCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly ) U% e g" _ l' s9 T) Y6 t
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District - u$ A9 k! N6 y5 s- {4 j6 U
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the 0 V% j8 V1 E K7 p. m* c) c7 I
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
/ b8 v: f5 p. g7 _$ ?% _(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as 8 z6 X+ i- P O
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
2 A& _+ \0 K* g1 g/ R% L5 N1 UChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
2 v A3 I5 q' V2 p4 @1 M n h# s0 {1 L ]( t. G! v
During the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the 5 u) [, P3 P2 B2 c' a' E$ L
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
# V* T% s; ]7 k( h1 x7 Rconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected ! R, H# H; h, J. P; O" L
up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
) \' W5 Q Q j+ w; Xmaterial.
( {$ l- |) c ]) I8 [' \& |
3 c5 l) Z6 U5 M4 Q9 _% z0 mSince independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin 9 P/ t: G3 P3 z! \2 t1 h4 Z# }0 \
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited ' x5 Q" t, V- P# m2 i; O4 O5 j9 ?
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese / J* J, V$ s+ Q( K4 |% q/ I
name of the country.
0 b+ w) U5 w6 Z& X' W5 l6 A9 o" M( o3 J
Since the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David 8 o6 R& t% X( G- B$ O, W+ V1 @
Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part
" q+ n( r0 W: R0 j2 @because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
2 J" P' ]2 t9 O* e% f2 G3 Y, I E
7 m" |8 J& \+ Z6 YLeeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and
' ?/ K9 i& f: m$ wplatinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold Z+ K; l% r3 e* E' _/ N3 \9 x% |
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening * i$ r A( E) y
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
2 V+ C$ c: j9 Yyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
5 f9 m! M+ {% U+ g4 x/ SHistory in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
' e0 X0 J- T! j! G7 `scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a 0 Z/ |1 j8 d# Q
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a P, A0 v# K2 j4 B7 m
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous
/ R" U8 j0 G" I5 i! Z3 X* rage. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
8 R% e! A& t: U) s/ B) p/ ^which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. , B% J6 Q' G; e3 p
% ?' e* l7 @1 R3 @+ \! U7 f2 _3 G
Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
8 K2 X O k+ x wburmite. 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
