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本帖最后由 德道 于 2010-10-30 22:21 编辑 " x1 R% |. |$ a, t: L; f
+ a" F) B* I; I- b2 \. PBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
1 ]' H: h: Y) o1 S2 y( Q. l0 M7 lState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources % `0 O' z' N; z' b8 p4 H$ {* O
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . 8 k7 f; P8 p1 h4 n7 `
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
& n) z' I" Z/ L8 K2 ~) I5 y# M. ?highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring 5 y% C. M( ^% V: U8 k% c- ]7 @
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two * D- x4 I$ t+ k6 N
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also " ~1 N; s$ D( K7 h& f. b
used and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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! e( _% q! e# J) |- UThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez
" m$ U+ E# V U' SSemedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to
! l0 T$ p! Z3 @! i0 k% nred 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)
$ k& `# z2 s) \% cand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng)
' E% }+ g: p: l1 ^5 I1 \ \3 t. ]Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
: G& o x7 E m6 ^4 {9 s5 Fpits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
M4 W. f; x! P# J# b“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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: z5 c2 T" _. a% ~In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to ; @6 L, |1 @2 r. B, e9 v
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to 7 k! ~5 H8 T b$ N7 X
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of ) y+ Y; W5 K! P0 b5 p/ G, b, ^8 b: ]
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name : a% t) y3 Q' {; D7 T
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in ' X) j. N: m& J5 N# g2 E& z, L8 h
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 1 t6 f/ x' O% k
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
. M3 s' z' C5 x2 `& \' X( V" U8 {internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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8 r4 C$ ]2 H; j% G* bCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly
9 O/ A3 Z, d0 n. G' ZUpper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District 5 ` x0 _* N' L( g5 v1 i8 A6 ~
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
0 h0 i5 h3 X& d/ oHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
W- ^: A+ Y! g+ O# f5 D5 a, G(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as
) J/ N( s( _& N: ~Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
. ~! S. ?: R6 t7 ^0 G cChibber (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
; B+ I0 F. B E* K& tJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the ! ^9 b4 C* E! j* W
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
# l$ f: D1 A0 e7 Q" ?up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
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+ r; |3 P( c% `Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin . g$ @ H# o% v
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited
% a) `3 q8 r6 t) xaccess to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
1 j/ e* i/ e2 |0 Kname 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
, c z3 D4 S- A" y0 l. VGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part 3 g* [- N1 _. {; j
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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?# c F3 D) v, v: Q! dLeeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and
8 k2 @9 V7 p% l; e2 Fplatinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold 8 h8 g7 v/ P6 E; d
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening
2 y% ?3 g/ q# g# S8 Wthe amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per % f4 j: i+ \' |) c# P2 g6 l8 D2 g; m
year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural 6 ~7 d' p) G* W4 I0 O' Q; {
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
% v& S, Q; ^7 u! c% g0 R) Tscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
7 G" Z$ z8 {. ~& S, ]: a# M% Nscientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a
! A. D/ \; k" `3 Xdescription of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous
9 R/ A* g! H/ T6 |age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from 7 j$ x" \' I: f+ q
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. : f9 x! q+ X/ t
1 |5 }$ M1 H; o( b0 A8 [2 WSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in 8 r( L5 X/ L5 V
burmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. ' T5 g( @ V7 h$ F; V" @* q; s
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