Prehistory of Myanmar

History of Myanmar
Prehistory of Myanmar 11,000–200 BCE Pyu city-states 200 BCE – 1050 CE (Sri Ksetra Kingdom, Tagaung Kingdom) Mon kingdoms 825?–1057? CE (Thaton Kingdom) Arakanese kingdoms 788?–1406
Pagan Kingdom 849–1297 Early Pagan Kingdom 849–1044 Warring states period Upper Myanmar 1297–1555 Myinsaing and Pinya Kingdoms 1297–1365 Sagaing Kingdom 1315–1365 Kingdom of Ava 1365–1555 Prome Kingdom 1482–1542 Hanthawaddy Kingdom 1287–1539, 1550–1552 Shan States 1215–1563 Kingdom of Mrauk U 1429–1785 Toungoo dynasty 1510–1752 First Toungoo Empire 1510–1599 Nyaungyan Restoration 1599–1752 Restored Hanthawaddy 1740–1757 Konbaung dynasty 1752–1885
British colonial period 1824–1948 Anglo-Burmese Wars 1824–1885 Resistance movement 1885–1895 Nationalist movement 1900–1948 Japanese occupation 1942–1945
Modern era 1948–present AFPFL government 1948–1962 Ne Win dictatorship 1962–1988 SLORC / SPDC junta 1988–2010 Political reforms 2011–2015 SAC junta 2021–present
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The prehistory of Burma (Myanmar) spanned hundreds of millennia to about 200 BCE. Archaeological evidence shows that the Homo erectus had lived in the region now known as Burma as early as 750,000 years ago, and the Homo sapiens about 11,000 BCE, in a Stone Age culture called the Anyathian. Named after the central dry zone sites where most of the early settlement finds are located, the Anyathian period was when plants and animals were first domesticated and polished stone tools appeared in Burma. Though these sites are situated in fertile areas, evidence shows these early people were not yet familiar with agricultural methods.^[1]

The Bronze Age arrived c. 1500 BCE when people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice, and domesticating chickens and pigs. The Iron Age arrived around 500 BCE when iron-working settlements emerged in an area south of present-day Mandalay.^[2] Evidence also shows rice growing settlements of large villages and small cities that traded with their surroundings and as far as China between 500 BCE and 200 CE.^[3] Bronze-decorated coffins and burial sites filled with the earthenware remains of feasting and drinking provide a glimpse of the lifestyle of their affluent society.^[2]

Evidence of trade suggests ongoing migrations throughout the prehistory period though the earliest evidence of mass migrations only points to c. 200 BCE when the Pyu people, the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant,^[4] began to move into the upper Irrawaddy valley from present-day Yunnan.^[5] The Pyu went on to found settlements throughout the plains region centred on the confluence of the Irrawaddy and Chindwin rivers that had been inhabited since the Paleolithic.^[6] The Pyu were followed by various groups such as the Mon, the Arakanese and the Mranma (Burmans) in the first millennium CE. By the Pagan period, inscriptions show Thets, Kadus, Sgaws, Kanyans, Palaungs, Was and Shans also inhabited the Irrawaddy valley and its peripheral regions.^[7]