缅甸琥珀简史
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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 3 n9 I) V ~ K- U; T
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources " D C! d$ R+ I
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . / {" S5 W' m7 k1 I! L" U h: E
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
1 ]: a, n7 H0 g: C' Vhighly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
8 E4 Z& {0 w& V1 {( U- ?' lto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
8 S: G' F3 O, jthousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also $ a* x2 D: Z4 q- E3 s6 s
used and is still used in Chinese medicine. + R3 O7 X. t. E# \2 K+ a
, [% H3 f" N: c4 u2 w) b5 s4 zThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez 3 C2 b; R9 I& t; U4 o
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to 3 W; S2 @0 K+ V) l' e/ z
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)
9 k0 n% j+ N3 u9 M# r8 Nand Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) 8 o* p" h |/ N/ E& ]& w5 K, i
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow ( D! X4 g" R& _( @- v
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the . t% p2 \# O& Q4 k/ F0 s8 g4 H4 m
“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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. k# M8 U; a" @" R2 hIn 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to
4 p/ s7 ~! C7 N" {& ]# [India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to
) J% L8 a9 U; `Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of
, @; T' r3 a* x/ ]( anorthern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name
) d1 e" m5 D( q$ k2 o' xburmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
; @! Z9 W' o# C* W) S+ w1893.
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In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
2 j: |& L; x! V8 T3 n$ W CSecond World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
+ C9 H* E! `: r: K; winternal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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& F( e P; }9 ~; I, X4 h: rCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly 3 L' C6 d. c1 S+ I: y
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
. j& R& p- `- q7 s2 d; gfrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
: X, G; Z2 u* Z* \Hukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson
6 i1 p+ W6 t% O' P. U(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as $ [9 U* ]; p' n5 i, j5 F+ L- s
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
* q, W3 W) [8 `& f \Chibber (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 . p, x' P7 Y9 _
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
) q( @5 O5 x1 O, ^/ D" d9 M, oconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
. t& z w& u% c- W8 J8 c+ Mup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
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; w) A+ N- e+ ~. Y" a1 iSince independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
, t% ~8 e/ n r0 ^0 e& ZIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited
% D/ c0 @& z& [1 Haccess to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese - @# r# O7 f' i) v7 x6 ^7 w
name of the country. " L, u; g4 T' F9 A$ q4 i) v( g" B- h2 M
" }* P% k6 D6 a) ^) _$ wSince the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David ! }- i2 r% Z/ h; p" f; t, u' o( W8 ~+ E
Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part
/ M2 x L& }9 J4 A: rbecause the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.” , K3 Q; W3 v) X
1 k( I$ N+ e3 t( k+ wLeeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and
+ W( p. r/ u( K7 E: N( C- M' Cplatinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold 0 T( @9 ^* t* E. }) g. O
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening
* D: P% }; a' M- `" Dthe amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
3 u9 t# i! a' `. _8 }' c) _% Jyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural 8 x0 g2 t' f O+ A3 F2 P% u
History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a $ P, a1 n1 O) u( \3 j; h
scientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a ( P0 j0 G [0 ~( U9 r4 c# B
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a 4 u' f! E( J1 S
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous # L2 u* E C9 c1 N5 C, P5 x' z
age. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from
1 i7 R6 p7 W' C( Iwhich commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber.
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6 H; o% Q) m$ |! H' n9 dSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in 7 z- k$ y, s, R; S. E6 U
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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