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 Myanmar portal |
Humans lived in the region that is now Burma as early as 11,000 years ago, but archeological evidence dates the first settlements at about 2500 BCE with cattle rearing and the production of bronze. By about 1500 BCE, ironworks were in existence in the Irrawaddy Valley but cities, and the emergence of city-states, probably did not occur until the early years of the Common era when advances in irrigation systems and the building of canals allowed for year-long agriculture and the consolidation of settlements,[2] although local mythology dates back to c. 1000-600 BC with the immigration of some people from janapadas, ancient countries in modern-day India.
The first identifiable civilisation which inhabited modern-day Burma is that of the Mon. They settled in the Ayeyarwady River delta area and along the Taninthayi coast. The proto-Burmans, the Pyu, settled in and around Pyay, and in the northwestern Ayeyarwady valley. Traces of their presence can be found in Sri Ksetra near Pyay, and in Beikthano in central Burma. The Mon are believed to have begun migrating into the area in about 3000 BC, and their first kingdom Suvarṇabhūmi (pronounced Thu-wenna-bhu-mi by Myanmar people) was centred on the port city of Thaton, which itself was established around 300 BC.
Artifacts from the excavated site of Nyaung-gan help to reconstruct Bronze Age life in Burma and the more recent archaeological evidence at Samon Valley south of Mandalay suggests rice growing settlements between about 500 BC and 200 AD which traded with Qin and Han dynasty China.[3]
- ^ Literature: Göran Burenhult: Die ersten Menschen, Weltbild Verlag, 2000. ISBN 3-8289-0741-5
- ^ Myint-U, Thant (2006), The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, p. 45, ISBN 978-0-374-16342-6
- ^ Dr Than Tun (History Professor, Mandalay University) The Story of Myanmar told in pictures