Early history of Burma

Humans lived in the region that is now Myanmar as early as 11,000 years ago, but archeological evidence dates the first settlements at about 2500 BC with cattle rearing and the production of bronze. By about 1500 BC, ironworks were in existence in the Irrawaddy Valley but cities, and the emergence of city states, probably did not occur till the early years of the Christian era when advances in irrigation systems and the building of canals allowed for year long agriculture and the consolidation of settlements.<Citation | last =Myint-U | first = Thant | year = 2006 | title = The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma | publication-place = New York | publisher = Farrar, Strauss and Giroux | page = 45 | isbn = 0-374-16342-1>]

Little is known about life in early Burma but there is evidence that land and sea traders from China and India passed by and left their mark on the region and the local people traded ivory, precious stones, gold and silver, rhinoceros horns, and horses with these traders. Roman envoys from Alexandria also passed through the Irrawaddy valley in A.D. 79 en-route to China. Second century Burmese sea-farers, trading with Southern India across the Bay of Bengal, are thought to have brought Buddhism to Burma in the 2nd Century C.E. and by the 4th Century, much of the Irrawaddy Valley was Buddhist including the then dominant city-state, Prome (modern Pyay).

Oral traditions

While little is known about the early people of Burma, the Mon were the first of the modern ethnic groups to migrate into the region, starting around 1500 BC. Oral tradition suggests that they had contact with Buddhism via seafaring as early as the 3rd century BC, though definitely by the 2nd century BC when they received an envoy of monks from Ashoka. Much of the Mon's written records have been destroyed through wars. The Mons blended Indian and Mon cultures together in a hybrid of the two civilisations. By the mid-9th century, they had come to dominate all of southern Myanmar. From that time, Northern Burma was a group of city-states in a loose coalition. The 'King' of each city-state would change allegiance as he saw fit, so throughout history, much of the Shan-Tai north has been part of the Tai countries of Nan Zhao (now Yunnan and GuangXi, China), SipSong Panna, Lanna (Chiangmai in Thailand - Siam), Ayuttaya (old capital of Siam) and even affiliated with Laos.

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