缅甸琥珀简史
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Burmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin 7 w( K% e& M' m( o6 o1 M
State the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources 4 H: x0 M' N" H; v
amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China . 3 J3 Q7 v2 V0 n: v- C8 W% l# N
From there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was # V5 v* {/ t6 L& O5 \+ D( x
highly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring # I( a! O1 V5 [+ _0 @) Y) B; Y" A
to Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two ! d) Q8 r+ [! x
thousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
( a( C3 H/ Z0 P/ g, y& M5 Uused and is still used in Chinese medicine. $ n/ ?% v& A; [
3 A4 f% Q K) ~( U. \The first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez * t* V6 G/ N# l
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to
% l" F6 L) g- t& r% H7 L2 Gred amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde. " ^& E; A2 @0 D& K9 P' C; j
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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)
8 F* v3 q2 @( D v- A2 m: X! g7 ]and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) ' o6 K0 S! D' `1 [
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
3 D: s5 m4 j! u: D$ cpits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the ], x5 D( [4 G1 C# ]
“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 9 \/ h& _% W- L l# ^
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to " g5 k% L' a# `! K- K e" i8 Q
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of ; O- `9 y9 \1 d3 Q
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name
3 Z7 P% b7 F) w1 t5 pburmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
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! s( U8 f4 y0 o+ J: m lIn the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the
% m/ {( q2 V2 sSecond World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also
* Q- ~# f6 \7 e- o% a9 x5 l+ yinternal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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5 m$ q2 A2 s6 Y J: b5 y0 RCockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly % `4 r& ]2 A/ {5 l0 w+ x4 K
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District 5 ~* h+ J9 v; z; h# t4 s3 |
from 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
) Y* Y! H) {: J: bHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson # Z5 T! P& w5 D/ _ [) W2 A
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as
7 E# _3 {) h) D, N. I ~7 m* S/ ?9 IBaltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits.
6 X+ [7 |8 I4 hChibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period.
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) R0 T/ u l8 s( v4 k: M' d# kDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the 0 G8 O7 X/ v3 C: j
Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the
8 y, k6 E; _& W" A9 g) rconstruction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected
5 x* m% V: Q, Mup with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
( ~ E# ?7 Q3 _4 Z3 Y* Zmaterial.
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin
N1 w! F: V4 H5 l6 hIndependence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited 4 [; w+ Z% w; ?$ I [
access to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
- C3 f6 `9 I: ~) c* Zname of the country. & t c; l1 ~& t5 s4 y8 D9 H1 `: Q0 A. y
5 r7 C" ^& }: d# D: NSince the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David
: C# r. g7 ?+ X: {; }! zGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part : G9 u1 \" [/ c' N: d' i
because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and ) ~2 d; G/ f0 F5 X
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold
0 b h8 R0 K2 A8 z4 [# P4 kprice, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening
4 e- l m+ J, a, l% k; l7 Qthe amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per ) L( B j0 I" x) @; [* H4 h* i
year. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
1 N, v, Z0 X6 `6 Z$ Y) cHistory in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
4 W2 U J% u) c. \* r7 Hscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a
7 x1 t9 q A4 @; c+ ^" a# }* ^2 Nscientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a 8 M/ S& D' }5 S! w- l7 x$ t1 l
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous
1 Z0 x, C2 V9 G8 V1 w- Xage. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from / H9 b% u6 Z+ P' }! P) {- i
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber. 6 X5 A9 p6 g+ ]- K$ B0 H5 Y+ o7 P
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Since scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
9 r% q4 n* Z+ l. t% ^, H; mburmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |