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Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin l+ B# t! _3 Z( a/ U" o) z7 H
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources 6 |$ d1 l- n( ~0 x( l9 j- C
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . 4 M% D4 q: {- a' q9 B+ U
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was 1 r# l1 k; {5 m" }( J& c# ~ t* T0 I
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring # n2 a' Q! E( p6 t" v3 t& l
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two # p2 e) O3 f" p; e' m# H
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also 8 r% W" J3 U; g4 w
used and is still used in Chinese medicine. & ]8 w7 B8 ~2 y, J c' [
$ K- D& @- v9 r- x7 U, w' k/ bThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez ; d* Z+ I; K" x+ X
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to , s: _6 ^6 f0 n, E
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde. % b. p, g+ p$ n) Y3 R; U
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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)
4 e' R1 ?! @; D [; D5 }and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) ; z1 |+ Z) `" V/ p- r4 n
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow 8 S, n) D! V5 R& s' J: l
pits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the 6 s" R2 M7 y0 y8 }$ A
“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep.
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# L' f. w2 @: r$ d9 C9 lIn 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to / l( a+ R8 [* K" `* s f4 p" ^
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to $ M6 }: m0 [) F) x3 [7 l
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of # [- e* s* i* A7 ^
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name / l; W. ^* C6 m# S. V
burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in + p, ?0 q+ {1 l2 c/ x
1893. 6 a1 \5 o3 z- I# x' |
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In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the 8 y3 T3 H/ |/ i8 }! K, V
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also # N# k' N! g% O) A: R( w& J
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 5 s. k) b+ g- r( }$ F
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District * {& r( J- T9 |1 @/ _' l a
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
. z, @+ j7 l; r. r$ _1 S0 b( r% U1 LHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson 4 ?! W; V) {. N
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as ' o- g( l, t3 k
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
7 @ A* t) F8 ?: W/ I. b2 r: HChibber (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
2 C3 j+ l+ V* [8 a$ q; YJapanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the 2 ?% A: J7 ?1 [
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
- W1 T8 `; P2 oup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war $ e9 F D4 N/ v/ e% n9 Y' [# o6 F
material.
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! n$ r4 ~! A& A# K) ySince independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin $ J2 x6 Y2 ?) s Z
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited
% ~4 k' \* r4 I: _0 naccess to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese 6 z" m, H& H5 o. N
name of the country. + |) T& E$ f, ~
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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
$ `# P2 `$ w. _9 V& m7 g7 i- [Grimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part
. v. m6 E" ]5 Mbecause the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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$ j l6 m4 b; x: V( v5 oLeeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and * @; f. t0 z& A: r; M0 H
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold
) m. D! _0 p3 c- t6 n; x' Gprice, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening ; k& G$ l3 U9 y5 s1 l7 s
the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
9 {3 v) K' ~$ }2 @9 `3 C" g, Y8 _year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
0 O2 c0 g( Z! XHistory in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
4 z4 J# d4 P; \, M' J; yscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
. u0 M6 f! ?- s) ^2 E/ hscientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a ( h/ q# o: V% u5 H' J
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous
% [8 \- D" \/ \- E- ? [ ^8 Vage. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from 0 \7 U- ?" [$ j0 J
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. ! V& F5 o3 D2 _1 d' [: ]1 G4 r
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in $ Q R- {' y' A9 p
burmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |