缅甸琥珀简史7 y5 @: [$ W9 q! I, O
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: n4 I% n* B" s: _1 KBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
# s4 H/ |- d. ]. O; kState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources 9 T* k2 g2 ~; ^
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . . c: l$ p% _" F4 h7 t+ r% L
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
8 @" c2 Q! T- g8 Yhighly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
* w/ i7 Z/ t2 }2 p$ I. Rto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
: d$ c5 Y) @8 xthousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
' K O5 I6 A9 P* eused and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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The first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
8 d% i$ s* Z" N7 Y3 V& HSemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to " D+ Z. I5 v c* M3 ^) e
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)
0 V8 {* l4 H. H6 k+ tand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) ; m4 T5 Q- S/ W
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow ( G% g/ P1 ^" x% Q1 S' i, f
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the + P& G. @+ P" O- ]+ T& k1 e$ v
“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 % L' `+ n6 S) ~/ n5 U
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
5 w& I& M5 G5 n3 {5 H' H; ZMandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of & F' T2 G7 O5 {2 L
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name
6 F2 a; f4 D+ L8 W3 qburmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in & r+ J; Y+ I% T# ~. w6 \+ F
1893. - L$ @( V3 a. v3 {- L
6 p2 ]+ [8 v& `In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
1 I' X" U8 e) K6 s4 A" c6 RSecond World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also : y* o# k# f& M" S. t
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. 7 R$ G* E, i% l m5 y* f
e e* ~( w! gCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly * V9 Z9 B7 Z8 t# X# e- h( }3 Q
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District 4 `- O4 f0 \' U( c$ E2 Y" P+ N
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the ! n" O- h* R/ N) s; I8 R7 R
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson ; q' n. b. e0 ^! m9 o* k( B
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as / z/ o: c! L1 ?* k: y/ G: S/ {) e2 n
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
. W* E; q; ~/ R# i" V+ GChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
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During the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the ; ]! y: O" D' M/ b5 F. ]; G- p
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the - |7 ]0 `# I/ z3 \; i
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected 5 }1 L* w# T1 a( p) a0 {: R
up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war & {/ L- V& L9 u* I
material. % U: m+ c T. l; q% A% U
z! [; J' g( z1 pSince independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin ; S. Q3 f8 R; r( e: I4 M5 R) e' d
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited ! b% w& E; v4 U. f9 ]' p' {
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese ) m: E @0 Y4 b% h% r/ u5 b
name of the country.
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7 o6 A, D5 ^% T' x" v# _+ A0 p( _Since the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David
) v8 V' ]# J/ K6 u; Z( uGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part - i' Y5 E0 `4 F. R9 _6 R y* W/ v9 ]
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.” K G& x: l( D
) l8 y/ R. v+ T$ A; lLeeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and - E& `! Z$ U! d9 P( @
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold
) K; G6 p- V9 t+ yprice, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening `9 \) Z c8 @7 g
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
, Z( r0 [ \: ?1 _3 e! ?3 hyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural 9 J: r& f3 A+ y- U8 ?* R
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a & i4 ?' [; T% r. R7 R" P
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
M& L \+ @2 O1 ~2 |2 jscientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a 6 l/ l. U- B& p& Y
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous 4 t* q0 A' y7 T- s& X7 z# x: V
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from / Q- E0 |& L! ^0 N. M
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber.
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~9 s' _ U- c' USince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in 9 T8 W) I6 p/ I
burmite. 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
