缅甸琥珀简史8 O. s" o; l4 w2 H4 p' G' C
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（注意我标注的红色文字）
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Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin 5 E! ]& c! I% ?& Q& W+ s* D) j
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
1 K4 G+ S. f v; xamber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
3 p5 S9 ?: o% g* b, T% J' ]0 O6 C1 J, SFrom there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was . A2 `8 p, K) C* ]
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
: S- D( A; I/ oto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
. j1 c0 d7 E! h$ ]thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also 1 k% e$ R1 \0 W2 Y4 D
used and is still used in Chinese medicine. # c, s: s: k8 Y5 e- ?
6 m9 S" G% q; \6 R$ bThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez 7 O; h9 ?* D, h1 Z
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to " T3 t- X2 T* N3 P: L- f; n( W; ~
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde. ' i% A$ { D" J0 F; D
& v Q9 o% k0 M! [) D) i" v( CIn the 19th Century, there were a series of reports about the location and mining of Burmese amber By Brester (1835)
2 o0 L$ G- t {' b' _9 Band Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) 5 E# w8 b2 z, L o! h( R
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
9 v4 P v! M+ p3 \& n% Ypits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
) ?( y7 ~/ |6 F6 ^: p+ W“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 $ i0 V( r/ Q% U; M
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
5 q( `' x6 F& `9 F+ w5 x1 e. E; YMandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of ! Q. a3 Y6 D+ X4 E" M$ Y% S
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name
, t( E2 }* D' }5 k, s9 ]& oburmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
4 e5 \( a, T6 n1893. # C% S; ~7 g: a) `" Y5 W
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In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
3 I) w, u" a4 v( Z% X9 \: ESecond World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
5 G- ^2 r/ Z0 }internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947. $ w# N- j! M% C/ n# J, C- E o I
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Cockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
' p0 C, c9 w& N$ M9 ^* U5 jUpper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District , Z/ t* r8 @& @8 n
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the ( R1 d3 X4 t- A1 ]* @, ]: \
Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
/ _+ m8 S7 i7 P(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as
8 D6 @0 k6 I) G# F9 ABaltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
$ Y Z8 |9 I2 d3 s/ Z6 l6 ^9 G8 UChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
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" F9 T4 z9 P' i$ | rDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
1 s1 H& C" r2 v6 \6 Q; YJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the ! P a0 j s" v5 y9 p* L; l
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
2 D0 l- x4 u Hup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war 6 H. c! }% h- z
material.
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" ?: U) o6 M! E) MSince independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
; T$ \$ `, T2 eIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited & W$ k& [; q7 ^% a* g
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese 6 l- u+ n9 j @3 L7 ~7 J4 [/ p
name of the country. + }0 ]) W( e; k. W
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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 $ _7 O$ H1 Y3 p t) y/ ]6 P
Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part ! @9 N, _" E8 P7 Y! ?' Y
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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# E0 R2 a% ]7 F' ILeeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and
5 K9 C! @3 \' splatinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold
8 f( ] Z* z$ b. ^price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening # r4 r/ v6 M0 y, J3 ?
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
7 K2 q$ j& _2 @year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
4 e5 _3 X! n5 Q( W' s) [7 LHistory in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a - t+ t2 r% a- R& x8 j# G. m7 X/ l
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
5 Q: l. U. I& `& E/ i# |* [2 v7 _scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a : o8 N) t$ [5 W, P( C+ E
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous
# Q1 [0 \9 p5 t- c @ Tage. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
+ y: ^1 R& K+ Xwhich commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. # D! ]3 K' m! M) S, b: v- e6 O; j
1 f$ \7 x! ~# r, T3 Y% a! ZSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
. L2 z: J4 P& ? m. k4 f2 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
