缅甸琥珀简史
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1 J, r7 A j5 ^, G4 S% R1 x9 HBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
3 Z9 x- ~$ W2 d' G9 FState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources 5 m9 l) R, j- a4 H3 p+ d
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . $ v5 D7 g; s7 L0 X3 E# `+ `6 M
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was 3 o" [7 L5 r( u2 [! G% a, k$ `
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring . q* M, ^( @) v! w% V
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two % A; E d: L# r# f, z9 ?3 T, F
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also * S3 A% f. f k/ j. s
used and is still used in Chinese medicine. ; [7 E% s, T+ J6 J! \9 ~
, }8 ^% R/ s/ N) r; z6 G( N3 t% |The first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez : y, D+ P e. c2 w8 m
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to & I) x, N+ ^. [# [5 Y2 n3 }
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde.
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- ]: [! y: I, h! H ]8 ^In the 19th Century, there were a series of reports about the location and mining of Burmese amber By Brester (1835)
$ `3 S8 @) G0 L$ y/ q8 a( jand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng)
* G3 _* i. h; r# K; iValley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
! _. j5 O0 v! X2 D @% J2 P1 b. i$ fpits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the " q2 C) N4 Y% B- L
“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
4 X/ c! U: q: y& k' d3 T* z- y5 FIndia . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to ; r+ |. R r/ Q3 \& Z
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of ) h, K4 V2 i! `; G2 v( Z
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name - o- V' Y6 }5 W/ ^( R
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
& v: b6 _' o3 t( I1893. $ a& U2 T8 B/ i: \8 d0 `1 @
) {/ ]( n/ [+ a: u, Z6 P, O! \In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the / I* z2 M% c( S3 j( _. a7 i
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also " c: r8 B% N5 R% g+ E
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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3 W: [0 G# F& A! o& J7 ] DCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
* O3 a2 \ R AUpper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
6 g. a, Z, B8 X" sfrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
7 s) p q" k) I- d2 P$ BHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
I5 p* S- q6 }3 M' Z) c8 h(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as
) ]) w# d2 Y R" @- `( v$ D; t: ~Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits. . l( |0 S, @4 \1 v+ _
Chibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period. $ @% ^1 L5 |& J/ ^
5 m; C; c2 }) Y! p" g3 {' X5 nDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
# {4 P! C/ S6 wJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
e/ Y4 V$ R! Uconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
5 ~/ i: ?, u1 m% O( D2 ?# \' qup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war * f) R) g/ j3 s. q: m
material.
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
( v5 @6 H0 x1 f5 jIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited
: T% F j# O- k( c3 |! Yaccess to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese ( l; e, U9 D% }
name of the country. * X( q4 V2 x% z, a) X* S4 E Z! g Q
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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 1 Y, G0 x7 w; z. o5 a* ^
Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part % ]9 N1 D: [0 q% r% {9 k4 r, L% `+ o
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and 9 m0 Z# }& p c7 e1 w4 x
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold " c2 `+ N, N$ l' T n
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening 1 x1 o5 c7 N* R$ D
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per ; F% l; P% c1 n/ o
year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
h2 x# f6 l c$ S+ l, Q; WHistory in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a " \9 j6 b }! `: |! K
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
4 k5 O8 C+ [2 G" e ]5 Fscientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a
: t( N, q1 h# w6 h- C2 }description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous 4 w: X* N% M7 g1 z) V# O: ~
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
5 r$ _: |& j8 M" v3 k3 W0 }2 xwhich commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. : \( P( Y+ V9 m( U4 f( ~
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
, s5 c- Z1 f. I/ H& t# xburmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |
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发表于 2011-1-14 04:20:54
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