缅甸琥珀简史/ Q* w. _! ~! t6 C' U0 c6 y
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（注意我标注的红色文字）, z" |4 B& q% S! }% D0 v0 B
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3 P6 Q9 F1 o4 ^, CBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
: T/ o8 L. w. xState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
8 s% J% F, {; T/ K% kamber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
9 y% q$ g6 g4 m2 r. c8 c% `' ?From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
( @0 s! B6 A" o) Qhighly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring 3 L7 q+ F6 c- P, o7 v' N- e; O7 V
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
) d2 P6 R2 J5 v2 Rthousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
, P1 T: i9 A; {+ i, k7 Yused and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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' y! ], \2 S4 q- o9 n# |The first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
0 y1 W3 O+ e/ s) `Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to
. G* @$ C- h1 m; j* e+ t. ]4 Wred amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde. / _( W# O( u& s7 |, Q
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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) 5 J7 p" q) m9 F: ]9 |* P
and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) * s5 v: x f o/ @; y
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow , L4 F3 J5 U& ?; _
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
: l9 E7 ^2 b3 T$ {3 a! m“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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: _* ^; V7 n ?In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
7 i1 b& |8 e. e8 V* NIndia . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
$ q! j% k t/ j, j9 D8 `% y% DMandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of `1 ]8 X+ g! l! M, W
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name 7 L. c4 N) P3 K' a% ] x, D3 y- F1 C
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in 1 d: _) D% j5 |# P0 ^$ H% _
1893.
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* k) q! O1 B/ o* MIn the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
2 V5 [. ]& [" {% h! l2 Y2 GSecond World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also ( Q3 L: ] n! ?# @
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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Cockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly ( @/ i/ c& z! }! c% T. r0 X2 @7 k
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
9 K4 I( T4 \: [( afrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
7 p Z7 p7 Z. c* C2 XHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson 4 S2 p: |; h1 O2 z
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as
, F( t- ]1 j8 {& s! eBaltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
; z$ x2 m" g2 I% C. K) P9 Y7 EChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period. v9 I0 `8 Y! U
% L7 z9 ?9 p; L- {7 ]During the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
( ?0 C' H7 R* R4 cJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the 2 ^& k5 x' Q4 D- x* p4 }
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
0 ?5 l. s+ `) J8 K Vup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
9 d! v/ v3 {1 w3 vmaterial.
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# N8 M& N* q1 Y* z4 W+ fSince independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
; N+ D2 x ~1 U1 C7 DIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited : e% ]& }: E9 z3 k' x
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
' k( P( \, ~! r0 F' \* Wname of the country.
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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
8 B4 L. y, s Z3 [9 J" u* aGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part
' d) T0 P% x0 }" D* E% L: hbecause the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.” / P# R s" T8 B! p- K: c
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Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and
. m; j7 A8 z# \platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold ' h. V0 N& P" j3 q
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening ' a0 ~( v" o$ D) A. t. h
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
3 j! h% o5 S+ z# `) g2 C+ Y/ f4 s( Fyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
' A' `: S: ?4 U9 eHistory in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
0 S6 @4 R, m" D* H# mscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
& L& K5 R2 f1 Y4 k, o( \scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a
5 ]; @# i! s! z6 |5 L* _description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous ( p; C6 b! }* I) x% q/ h3 ^! V) C
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from " j. ]/ ?( h6 c* H% x
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber.
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in , u) a4 @8 q9 o8 k) w
burmite. 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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