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"Amber hunters" in search of a dinosaur discovery in the Jurbadic Park style sift through mounds of precious resin in Myanmar – a lucrative business that captivates paleontologists but also fuels a conflict several decades in the Far North. 19659002] The morning amber market on the outskirts of Myitkyina, the state capital Kachin, is filled with torches and magnifying glbades to scrutinize the pieces of the fossilized tree sap of color honey.
Some sell uncut pieces. Others sell finished products: pendants, necklaces and bracelets made from carefully polished pieces.
Trade takes place a few dozen kilometers from fighting between the Myanmar Army and ethnic Kachin rebels fighting for autonomy, land, identity and natural resources.
The jade and ruby industries overshadow the essentially artisbad trade in amber, but resin can still bring large sums of money to those who control the mines.
According to the Myo trader, the Myitkyina market has money to gain. Swe.
His specialty is "inclusions", sap that has trapped parts of plants, animals and even dinosaurs before hardening in amber – history hanging inside the resin.
Remains of a Cretaceous plant dinosaur for representational purposes. Reuters
Find the right buyer and he could pocket up to $ 1.00,000 piece in a shady industry that sees most of the amber smuggled across the Chinese border
"Even though it contains only one ant or mosquito – each piece is interesting, "said the 40-year-old AFP . "I value each one of them."
Dinosaur tales
Amber, historically coveted as jewelry by the nobility of China to ancient Greece, is experiencing a revival of popular culture through the 90s successful movie "Jurbadic Park", located in a theme park where dinosaurs were cloned by extracting the mosquitoes kept in the resin.
However, most amber announce not Jurbadic but late Cretaceous, up to 100 million years ago.
The best preserved "inclusions" offer today's scientists and collectors a three-dimensional fossil, with some creatures even frozen at half-motion.
Amber deposits are found all over the world but, for paleontology, the Kachin mines are "irreplaceable", says Lida Xing, 36, of the Chinese University of Geosciences Beijing [19659002] "The amber mining area of Kachin is the only Cretaceous amber mining site in the world still operating in the commercial mining sector." It is ays. "There is no better place than Myanmar."
Lida Xing enjoyed fame among his paleontologist colleagues in 2015 when he brought back a part of a 99-million-year-old feathered dinosaur tail from Myanmar. his discovery, however, was tinged with disappointment when he returned to try to find the source.
"They said that they did not know, they probably had already sold or broken it." This dinosaur could even have been complete with a " AFP in Beijing
" Amber Conflict "
Amber hunter lovers, the main challenge for traders and collectors is to work in a conflict zone.
A resurgence of fighting between the army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in recent years has left more than 1,00,000 displaced people in the region.
Pamphlets dropped by military helicopters in June even warned around the mines to leave the area or b According to Human Rights Watch, only the most robust amber hunters are trying to go there.
"We could almost not reach the mining area because it was very dangerous," says Lida. Xing says of his trip in 2015. "We infiltrated when the situation was much lessened, but no scientist could enter after that."
"This is a serious problem because, for paleontology, you get a lot of useful information from geological conditions and strata – but we have not been able to do that." [19659002] Amber, jade, wood and gold are also "key drivers" of the conflict in northern Myanmar, says Hanna Hindstrom of the Global Witness monitoring group. Any company marketing amber from Myanmar "could cause or contribute to a range of damage, including conflict and human rights violations," she adds
Akbar Khan, 52 years old, "extreme fossil in an amber hunter". Who runs a stall in downtown Bangkok avoids risks and ethical issues.
He makes frequent visits to Kachin and explains that the adrenaline rush he finds in finding parts of dinosaurs is nothing else. walk in the clouds, in paradise, "he says.
" If people have a big diamond, so what? The world is full of big diamonds … but the world is not full of amber dinosaurs. "
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