A first absolute chronology for Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age Myanmar: new AMS¹⁴C dates from Nyaung'gan and Oakaie

Abstract

Research A first absolute chronology for Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age Myanmar N 0 km 4000 Nyaung'gan Late prehistoric archaeological research in Myanmar is in a phase of rapid expansion. Recent work by the Mission Archéologique Française au Myanmar aims to establish a reliable Neolithic to Iron Age culturehistorical sequence, which can then be compared to surrounding regions of Southeast Asia. Excavations at Nyaung'gan and Oakaie in central Myanmar have provided 52 new AMS dates, which allow the creation of Myanmar's first reliable prehistoric radiometric chronology. They have also identified the Neolithic to Bronze Age transition in central Myanmar, which is of critical importance in understanding long-range interactions at the national, regional and inter-regional level. This research provides the first significant step towards placing late prehistoric Myanmar in its global context.

Dating the Bronze Age of Southeast Asia. Why Does It Matter?

“…The Neolithic occupation of Non Pa Wai and Non Mak La dates to a similar time span (Weiss and Pigott 2017), with the transition to the first evidence for copper exploitation following in the late 2nd millennium BC. The virtually identical date for early bronze in north central Myanmar suggests that there was a geographically wide and uniform front to this uptake (Pryce et al 2018). White (2018), in contrast, places the initial Bronze Age at Ban Chiang contemporary with or even earlier than the arrival elsewhere in Southeast Asia of the first farmers.…”

“…By obtaining over 200 new radiocarbon determinations from key sites in Northeast and Central Thailand, north-central Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and southern provinces of China, we suggest that the chronological scaffolding is now in place, and regional specialists can move with assurance to exploring how the technical knowledge of copper and tin alloying reached Southeast Asia, how was it deployed, and what was its social impact (Higham and Higham 2009;Higham et al 2015;Castillo et al 2018;Pryce et al 2018). We find that rice and millet farmers expanded south from the Yangtze and Yellow River regions by different routes, reaching Baiyangcun in Yunnan by ca.…”

A prehistoric copper-production centre in central Thailand: its dating and wider implications

“…Furthermore, recent dates from northern-central Myanmar (Pryce et al . 2018a & b) and central and northern Laos (Pryce & Cadet 2018; Cadet et al . 2019) also provide radiometric dates of c. eleventh/tenth century BC, at the transition to the Bronze Age.…”

“…This technology appears, however, to have arrived only partially developed in central Thailand with competent early foundry work, but rudimentary primary smelting techniques in evidence at Non Pa Wai are supported, in part, by lead isotope analysis (Pryce et al . 2010, 2014, 2018a & b).…”

Fishbone artefacts from the Samrong Sen site, Cambodia, cast new light on Bronze Age networking between inland and coastal communities

“…Sites were therefore connected to one another, and sources of copper and tin were not dispersed equally between these settlements. As a consequence, these commodities and items made from them were sometimes traded and exchanged over considerable distances, and exchange systems of rare and prestigious goods were wide spread (Carter, 2015; Higham, 1989, 1996, 2002; Murillo‐Barroso, Pryce, Bellina, & Martinón‐Torres, 2010; Pryce et al, 2018). For instance, in the Nyaung'gan Bronze Age Culture area of Myanmar, metal artefacts appear to have the same chemical signature than copper smelting sites found in Central Thailand (Pryce et al, 2016, 2018).…”