缅甸琥珀简史' t. M( f' A3 n1 A) M
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(注意我标注的红色文字)
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' s. j& [: i4 g) P4 YBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin ! {8 M/ l% h: q2 n# L
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
/ ` ?" s3 ?( A0 ?amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . 9 Q( U- {( l! r! o
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was / [ Z8 Z! q$ {8 t) U. t0 {6 J# Y
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
+ S7 q2 C c+ d. |to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two * G* q0 L- W* W# j4 y$ Y, p2 ^
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also : g# h( V$ r, r
used and is still used in Chinese medicine. + K6 C1 l( i! t8 ^
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The first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez 0 u' A4 J0 f- e- V; h% }2 E; [
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to
5 V8 z3 k1 P/ @# B- Y3 l: cred amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde. , c0 I* g8 z' V3 }1 N" z( |* C
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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)
2 n& c5 v4 }4 R4 t1 P! H3 C% ]6 @and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) ! u8 h2 U1 X% D* U
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow " l* W, |0 x6 c! b+ d
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
( p6 ^8 N: a. r- l, Y“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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4 F# U/ Z% ~. y* IIn 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
. f: r# ?6 G- I. V( ]/ }India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to % D! v9 m j* q* p3 s+ [; F/ K0 g
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of , u; w! [: B4 ? Z; J. }6 }
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name ( u4 F# K- {# H" X& |+ l* {5 q
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
% r9 [: `+ J# |. J7 ^ ]1893.
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In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the ; ~7 P: |+ y4 ?& @+ G& o* \1 i5 @: X
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
" n, C* ^; B% j/ G$ finternal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. : c( j( z' w# o# G( R# Y2 @! T6 B
8 H4 b2 D, J' T3 ZCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
% E0 q: K) h" B! zUpper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
6 A4 V5 \) B5 P! U; b( ~from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
: u$ J, H" t+ q6 e9 F' aHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
3 [# c3 ]2 q5 [) Q7 ~: p(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as 1 m! {9 n6 w1 D7 N
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits. ( W2 E. C$ \% z1 r
Chibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
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3 h- A% Y% b6 X2 @9 `$ O1 h( zDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
1 J; v4 b7 r6 Y3 u- O, l4 ?& GJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the 1 ?) P. {& I ^, O
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
" z. J# p4 w; q( c2 cup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
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$ }" b! t% h5 M2 `Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
4 i8 X+ g% U" b3 ^6 B1 m0 @Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited & b: h$ ]" d: j3 o+ I" o
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
; Y6 G- P1 r$ k# n: V( w! W+ B; o" vname of the country. , D& Y' E+ Z; g. G
! n3 [. L5 S: v5 d" i* ?Since the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David 0 [' Y4 V& z7 ?% Z: }0 C: G! a
Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part $ J' r6 |1 k! s
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.” 6 ]6 l5 d6 N0 E
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Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and 6 _8 n0 R$ _2 ~
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold . W( E) I5 H/ n2 [, J; z& S
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening * m9 }3 J, j" k5 z' u5 p) I
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per " a/ v0 }2 C s+ n. ~& F0 d
year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
7 m* J K4 Z3 J% \/ cHistory in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a $ j1 H% n; ~1 q/ p' a. c# B
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a 3 v5 ?- u8 q4 h& p3 ~- G' q+ B
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a + N, V/ W+ Y' b- C B6 A1 F
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous
. \" Z4 f. {& k3 _! x) Zage. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
& ^7 u) \7 H7 q: wwhich commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. 2 [+ E5 P( m) a9 w
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
' M) b& r% C( d, iburmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |