Editing Laos (section)

=== Prehistory ===
[[File:Pha That Luang, Vientiane, Laos.jpg|thumb|left|[[Pha That Luang]] in [[Vientiane]] is the national symbol of Laos.]]
A human skull was recovered in 2009 from the [[Tam Pa Ling Cave]] in the [[Annamite Range|Annamite Mountains]] in northern Laos; the skull is at least 46,000 years old, making it the oldest modern human fossil found to date in [[Southeast Asia]].<ref>{{Cite journal|pmid = 22908291|pmc = 3437904|year = 2012|last1 = Demeter|first1 = F|display-authors=et al.|title = Anatomically modern human in Southeast Asia (Laos) by 46 ka|journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume = 109|issue = 36|pages = 14375–14380|doi = 10.1073/pnas.1208104109|bibcode = 2012PNAS..10914375D|doi-access = free|issn = 0027-8424 }}</ref> Stone artifacts including [[Hoabinhian]] types have been found at sites dating to the [[Pleistocene]] in northern Laos.<ref>{{Cite journal|year = 2009|last1 = White|first1 = J.C.|title = Archaeological Investigations in northern Laos: New contributions to Southeast Asian prehistory|journal = Antiquity|volume = 83|issue = 319|last2 = Lewis|first2 = H.|last3 = Bouasisengpaseuth|first3 = B.|last4 = Marwick|first4 = B.|last5 = Arrell|first5 = K|url = http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/white/|access-date = 18 September 2016|archive-date = 10 October 2017|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171010191403/http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/white/|url-status = live}}</ref> Archaeological evidence suggests an agriculturist society developed during the 4th millennium BC.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Marwick|first1=Ben|last2=Bouasisengpaseuth|first2=Bounheung|chapter=History and Practice of Archaeology in Laos|editor1-last=Habu|editor1-first=Junko|editor2-last=Lape|editor2-first=Peter|editor3-last=Olsen|editor3-first=John|title=Handbook of East and Southeast Asian Archaeology|publisher=Springer|date=2017|chapter-url=https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/75zhc/|access-date=20 January 2018|archive-date=6 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190706125232/https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/75zhc/|url-status=live}}</ref> Burial jars and other kinds of sepulchers suggest a society in which bronze objects appeared around 1500 BC, and iron tools were known from 700 BC. The proto-historic period is characterised by contact with Chinese and Indian civilisations. According to linguistic and other historical evidence, [[Tai languages|Tai-speaking]] tribes migrated southwestward to the territories of Laos and [[Thailand]] from [[Guangxi]] sometime between the 8th and 10th centuries.<ref name="PittayawatPittayaporn">[http://www.manusya.journals.chula.ac.th/files/essay/Pittayawat%2047-68.pdf Pittayaporn, Pittayawat (2014). Layers of Chinese Loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai as Evidence for the Dating of the Spread of Southwestern Tai] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627063518/http://www.manusya.journals.chula.ac.th/files/essay/Pittayawat%2047-68.pdf |date=27 June 2015 }}. ''MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities'', Special Issue No 20: 47–64.</ref>